GIFT   OF 


DEPARTMENT  OF 

PVBLIC  INSTRUCTION 
OAKLAND  CALIFORNIA 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY 


OAKLAND   SCHOOLS 


E  OAKLAND  SPELL- 
ON  OF  OCTOBER,  1914 
NT  PROFES- 
LAND  STAN- 
:RSITY 


IOARD  OF  EDVCATION  BVLLETIN 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY 


IN    THE 


OAKLAND  SCHOOLS 


A  REPORT  OF  THE  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVEST- 
IGATION OF  OCTOBER  1914 


By 

J.  B.  SEARS, 

Assistant  Professor  of  Education 
Leland  Stanford  Junior  University. 


Price,    twenty-five   Cents^ 


PUBLICATION  NO.  1. 

BUREAU  OF  INFORMATION,  STATISTICS,  AND 
EDUCATIONAL  RESEARCH. 

W1LFORD  E.  TALBERT,  DIRECTOR 
June,  1915. 


<=>* 


INTRODUCTORY  NOTE. 

For  the  past  two  years  the  principals  of  Oakland  have  been  active 
members  of  an  organization  known  as  the  "1915  Club"  which  was 
conducted  by  Prof.  C.  E.  Rugh  of  the  University  of  California. 

The  Director  of  the  Bureau  of  Information,  Statistics,  and  Edu- 
cational Research,  a  new  Bureau  created  in  July,  1914  for  the  pur- 
pose of  promoting  the  scientific  study  of  Education,  took  advantage 
of  the  opportunity  this  organization  afforded,  and  led  in  the  forma- 
tion of  a  club  composed  exclusively  of  school  principals.  This  club 
is  a  self-governing  body,  with  membership  purely  voluntary,  and 
attendance  on  the  part  of  supervisors  or  other  non-members  is  only 
by  invitation.  The  accompanying  report  represents  the  results  of 
the  first  of  the  club's  efforts  to  realize  its  purpose. 

In  September,  1914,  Professor  J.  B.  Sears  of  Stanford  Univer- 
sity was  invited  to  address  the  Club  on  the  subject  of  "Possible  and 
Profitable  Lines  of  Investigation  for  School  Principals."  The  result 
of  his  inspiring  talk  was  the  conducting  of  an  extensive  study  of 
the  teaching  of  spelling  in  the  elementary  schools  throughout  the 
city,  with  Professor  Sears  as  Director  of  the  investigation.  The 
following  pages  constitute  his  findings  as  reported  to  the  Principals' 

Study  Club. 

WILFORD  E.  TALBERT. 

Oakland,  California,  June  25th,  1915. 


111 


34915: 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Introductory    Note    by   the    Director    of   the    Bureau    of    Information, 

Statistics,  and  Educational  Research Ill 

List  of  Tables V 

List  of  Diagrams , VI 

Author's    Preface VII 

CHAPTER  I— INTRODUCTION. 

Purpose  and  plan  of  the  investigation — How  these  plans  were  car- 
ried out — The  nature  of  the  test  given — Special  problems — Scope 
of  the  test — Scoring  the  papers — The  study  of  the  results 1 

CHAPTER      II— SPELLING      EFFICIENCY      BY      GRADES,      BY 
SCHOOLS,  AND  FOR  THE  CITY  AS  A  WHOLE. 
The  city  as  a  whole — Comparison  of  schools — Comparison  of  grades 
and  classes — Individual  standings  by  grades — A  stud}7  of  grade  2 — 
Summary    and    conclusions 6 

CHAPTER     HI— SPELLING     EFFICIENCY     AND     INDIVIDUAL 
DIFFERENCES. 

The  Problem — Age,  grade,  and  spelling  efficiency — Sex  and  spelling 
efficiency — General  ability  in  school  work  as  judged  by  the  teacher, 
and  spelling  ability — Summary  and  conclusions 

CHAPTER  IV— SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND   SOCIAL  DIFFER- 
ENCES. 

The  nature  of  the  problem — Father's  occupation  and  spelling  effi- 
ciency— Children's  occupational  ambitions  and  spelling  efficiency- 
Father's  nationality  and  spelling  efficiency — Influence  of  home  lan- 
guage on  spelling  efficiency — Summary  and  conclusions 41 

CHAPTER   V— THE    ADMINISTRATION     AND     TEACHING     OF 
SPELLING. 

The  problem — Oakland's  policy  affecting  spelling — Time  allotment 
and  spelling  efficiency — Time  allotment  compared  with  that  in  use 
in  other  cities — Relation  of  time  consumed  to  achievement  in  test — 
Content  of  the  course  in  spelling— Length  of  lesson  assignment- 
Methods  and  devices  in  use  in  the  teaching  of  spelling — Con- 
clusions   61 

APPENDIX  A — A  SUGGESTED  READING  LIST  FOR  TEACHERS  AND  PRINCIPALS....  78 


IV 


LIST  OF  TABLES. 

TABLE  PA(JE 

1.  Word  lists  : 3 

2.  Number  and  grade  distribution  of  children  taking  the  tests . 4 

3.  Standings  by  schools  and  by  grades 7 

4.  Distribution  of  grades  receiving  highest  and  lowest  averages 10 

5.  Showing  average  for  all  children  in 'the  city  by  grades,  and  the  high- 

est and  lowest  standing  made  in  each  grade n 

6.  Distribution  of  standings  of  individual  pupils  by  grades 14 

7.  Comparison  of  standings  for  grades  2A  and  2B 19 

8.  Age-grade  distribution  of  children  tested  in  grades  3  to  8 25 

9.  Age-grade  distribution  in  per  cents 26 

10.  Age  groups  and  spelling  ability  by  grades 28 

11.  Showing  by  grades   the   standing  of  three   age  groups   as   compared 

with  the  averages  for  the  grades  from  which  they  were  drawn 30 

12.  Grade  averages  by  sex .}',} 

13.  Showing   the   distribution   of   standings   of   2644   children   by   occupa- 

tional  or    social   groups 42 

14.  Occupational  distribution  of  the  7th  and  8th  grade  children  and  their 

standings   by   groups... 46 

15.  Showing  the  per  cent  of  children  of  native  and   of  foreign  parents 

who  receive  the  different  standings  and   for  those  of  foreign  par- 
ents separately • 51 

16.  Comparison    of    errors    made    by     children     from  .  English     speaking 

homes  with  those  made  by  children  from  foreign  homes 55 

17.  Comparative  distribution   of  spellings  among  different  nationalities — 

how  each  word  was  spelled  and  by  what  per  cent  of  each  group 57 

18.  Distribution   of  time   allotments   by   different   classes   and   grades   for 

study,  for  recitation,  and  for  the  two  combined 65 

19.  Showing  the  distribution  of  classes  in  each  grade  with  respect  to  the 

number  of  spelling  periods  per  week 68 

20.  Comparative   standing  of  ten   cities   with   respect   to  the  per   cent   of 

total  school  time  devoted  to  spelling 68 

21.  Relation  between  minutes  of  time  per  week  spent  on  spelling  and  the 

standing  made  in  the  test.     (39  classes  from  16  schools) 60 

22.  Showing  the  chief  sources,  other  than  text,  from  which  spelling  lists 

are  selected,  and  the  number  of  teachers  by  grades  who  make  use 
of  each  of  these  sources 71 

23.  Showing  by  grades  the  variability  in  length  of  daily  lesson  assignment  72 

24.  Distribution  of  teachers  with  respect  to  methods  and  devices  used  in 

teaching  spelling  75 


LIST  OF  DIAGRAMS. 


DIAGRAMS  PAGE 

1.  Entire  city  by  schools,  showing  average  for  school,  highest  grade  and 

lowest  grade  in  each  school 8 

2.  Distribution  of  grades  and  classes  for  city  as  a  whole 11 

3.  Distribution  of  standings  of  pupils  by  grades,  showing  medians 15 

4.  Distribution  of  standings  by  per  cents  for  all  children  in  grades  3  to 

8,    showing    median 17 

5.  Distribution  of  class  averages :  grade  2B,  18  classes,  2A,  10  classes 19 

6.  Distribution  of  standings  of  grade  2  by  per  cents 20 

7.  Age-grade    distribution    in    per    cents,    showing    accelerated,    normal, 

and  retarded  groups 27 

8.  Spelling  ability  by  grade  and  by  age  groups 29 

9.  Relative  standings  of  boys  and  girls  by  grades 33 

10.  Comparative  standings  of  boys  and  girls  in  each  grade  by  schools 34 

11.  Showing  the  average  standing  of  five  brightest  and  five  poorest  pupils 

in    each  ^lass    (based   on    teachers'   judgment)    compared    with   the 
average   for   their   respective   schools 37 

12.  Showing  the  distribution  of  the  standings  of  2644  children  with  re- 

spect to  their  fathers'  occupations 43 

13.  Distribution   of   7th   and   8th   grade  children    with    respect    to    their 

choice  of  occupations.     3079   in   all 45 

14.  Distribution   of   fathers   of   the   third   and   eighth   grade   children   by 

nationalities    50 

15.  Showing  the  per  cent,  of  children  of  native  and  of  foreign  parents 

who  receive  the   different   standings  and  for  those  of  foreign  par- 
ents   separately    52 

16.  Comparison  of  foreign  groups  with  their  grade  averages 53 

17.  Distribution  of  study,  recitation,  and  study  and  recitation  time  com- 

bined, by  classes 67 

18.  Showing   relation  between   class   standings  and   the  amount  of  time 

used    for    spelling 70 


VI 


PREFACE. 

The  following  is  a  report  of  the  study  of  spelling  efficiency  in 
the  schools  of  Oakland  as  undertaken  in  co-operation  with  the 
Principals'  Study  Club  of  that  city. 

The  report  has  attempted  to  get  at  the  facts  regarding  the  hand- 
ling of  spelling,  and  it  presents  these  in  as  much  detail  as  the  prac- 
tical aims  of  the  study  demand.  For  the  most  part,  the  results  are 
highly  commendable,  but  at  points  a  fair  interpretation  must  neces- 
sarily be  critical.  The  report  has  sought  to  make  a  perfectly  frank 
statement  of  conclusions,  whether  favorable  or  unfavorable,  and 
where  it  is  believed  that  change  should  be  made,  definite  lines  of 
procedure  have  been  suggested. 

In  accordance  with  the  original  plan,  the  data  upon  which  this 
report  is  based  was  made  use  of  by  a  small  group  of  my  advanced 
students  in  connection  with  a  course  in  elementary  education.  Much 
of  the  data  so  handled  was  of  use  directly  or  indirectly  in  the  prepa- 
ration of  this  report,  and  I  wish  here  to  acknowledge  with  thanks 
such  assistance  from : 

Miss  Leela  Kinnear.  Mrs.  Mary  Chamberlain. 

Miss  Myra  McHale.  Miss  Ora  Hroker. 

Miss  Mary  Ketman.  Miss  Genevieve  Schellbach. 

Miss  Ottilie  Hoernig.  Mr.  George  Bettin. 

Miss  Hazel  R.  Davis.  Mr.  Will  A.  Thompson,  Jr. 

and  especially  from  Miss  Catherine  Cavanagh,  who  aside  from  class 
work  assisted  in  tabulating  much  of  the  data  for  Chapter  V. 

Thanks  are  also  due  the  Stanford  and  California  University 
students  who  assisted  in  giving  the  tests,  and  to  the  teachers,  princi- 
pals, and  other  school  officers  for  making  available  such  information 
as  was  essential  to  the  study. 

Finally,  I  wish  to  express  my  hearty  appreciation  of  the  constant 
help  of  Mr.  C.  B.  Crane,  President  of  the  Principals'  Study  Club, 
and  of  Mr.  Wilford  E.  Talbert,  Director  of  the  Bureau  of  Informa- 
tion, Statistics,  and  Educational  Research,  without  which  the  study 
could  not  have  been  made,  and  also  for  the  excellent  spirit  of  co- 
operation shown  by  the  members  of  the  Club  which  has  made  the 
preparation  of  this  report  a  pleasure. 

J.  B.  SEARS.  . 

Stanford  University,  California, 
June  25th,  1915. 

vii 


CHAPTER  I. 

INTRODUCTION. 

PURPOSES  AND  PLANS  OF  THE  INVESTIGATION. 

The  following  plans  for  a  study  of  the  present  state  of  efficiency 
of  the  teaching  of  spelling  in  the  schools  of  Oakland  were  worked 
out  in  co-operation  with  the  Principals'  Study  Club  of  that  city,  and 
the  investigation  was  begun  on  Oct.  20,  1914. 

The  purpose  was  to  make  a  complete  survey  of  this  branch  of 
the  elementary  school  curriculum,  covering  a  test  of  spelling  effi- 
ciency in  grades  2  to  8  inclusive,  in  all  schools,  as  well  as  the  ad- 
ministration, supervision,  and  teaching  of  the  subject.1 

To  these  ends,  1st,  a  written  spelling  test  was  given  to  the  chil- 
dren of  these  grades,  for  which  the  following  printed  form  was 
provided. 

SPELLING  BLANK. 
Oakland  Spelling  Test. 

October ,  1914 

1.     No 2.      Name 

3.     Age   (yrs.  and  months) 4.     Grade 

5.  Language  spoken  at  home  by  father  and  mother 

6.  Father's   occupation 

7.  Father's    nationality 

8.  What  occupation  do  you  want  to  follow  when 

you  are  grown  ? 

1 

2 , 

3 : 

4 

5 ; 

6 

7 

8 

9 

10 '. 

On  this  form  each  child  was  given  a  number  as  above. 

The  best  pupil  in  the  class,  "best  all-round  pupil,  not  only  in  spell- 
ing but  in  general  school  work  of  all  kinds,"  was  numbered  1,  the 
second  best,  2,  and  so  on  for  5  pupils.  The  other  children  were 
numbered  in  any  order  till  the  last  five,  who  were  to  include  "the 
five  weakest  pupils  in  the  class,"  "weak  in  general  school  work,  and 
not  spelling  alone."  The  purpose  in  gathering  the  information 
called  for  here  was  not  only  to  throw  as  much  light  as  possible  on 
the  problems  of  spelling,  but  to  have  at  hand  for  similar  studies  in 
other  lines  later.  2nd,  another  printed  blank,  as  follows,  was  placed 
in  the  hands  of  each  teacher  of  spelling,  who  filled  it  out  under  the 

lrThe  Beulah  school  of  20  pupils  divided  among  several  grades  was  not  included 
in  this  test. 


OAKLAND'  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

TEACHERS'  INFORMATION  BLANK. 
Oakland  Spelling  Test. 

OCTOBER ,   1914 

1.  Name Grade No.  Tested... 

2.  Minutes  per  week  given  to 

(  Study  of  Spelling 

\  Recitation  of  Spelling _ 

3.  Number  of  Recitations  per  week • 

4.  Do  you  advise  or  require  home  study  of  spelling? 

5:     Do  you  teach  spelling  in  connection  with  any  other 

subjects,  as  reading  or  language? 

6.  Do  you  take  spelling  lists  from  spelling  test  exclusively?.... 

7.  Mention  any  other  sources  from  which  you  make  up  lists.. 


8.  How  many  words  do  you  assign  per  lesson? 

9.  Explain  as  fully  as  you  can  the  method  or  methods 

by  which  you  teach  spelling 


10.     Describe  carefully  the  devices  you  make  most  use  of 
in  teaching  spelling  in  this  grade 


11.     Name  the  best  books  and  articles  you  know  of  on 
the  teaching  of  spelling 


12.     What  subject  and  grade  do  you  like  best  to  teach?. 


directions  of  the  principal.  Through  this  blank  it  was  hoped  to  get 
as  much  information  as  possible  upon  the  general  place  of  spelling 
in  the  curriculum,  its  connection  with  other  subjects,  the  time  it 
consumes,  and  the  methods  by  means  of  which  it  is  taught.  In  ad- 
dition to  this,  conferences  were  held  with  the  supervisor  of  Primary 
grades,  with  the  Principals'  Study  Club,  and  with  the  Director  of 
the  Bureau  of  Information,  Statistics,  and  Educational  Research, 
and  access  had  to  such  printed  materials  as  bore  on  the  subject. 

HOW  THESE  PLANS  WERE  CARRIED  OUT. 

In  order  that  the  tests  might  be  given  under  uniform  conditions, 
and  as  nearly  as  possible  under  normal  schoolroom  conditions  a 
time  schedule  was  arranged  by  Mr.  Talbert  of  the  Bureau  of  In- 
formation, Statistics,  and  Educational  Research  so  that  all  classes 
of  a  given  grade  would  take  the  test  at  the  same  hour  of  the  day — 
lower  grades  in  the  morning,  and  upper  grades  after  noon,— and 
without  knowing  that  the  test  was  in  any  way  unusual. 

Some  sixty  assistants,  advanced  students  of  education  in  Cali- 
fornia and  Stanford  universities,  who  had  received  both  personal 
and  printed  instructions  as  to  how  the  tests  were  to  be  conducted, 
were  placed  in  charge — one  in  each  room  during  the  time  of  the 


INTRODUCTION  3 

test.  In  each  building,  one,  a  chief  assistant,  co-operated  with  the 
principal  in  settling  matters  of  detail.  In  addition  to  the  directions 
given  to  assistants,  separate  uniform  instructions  were  issued  to 
all  principals  and  teachers,  and  through  the  careful  planning  of  the 
principals  the  regular  routine  of  the  school  day  was  broken  very 
little. 

The  words  were  pronounced  clearly  and  slowly  by  the  regular 
classroom  teacher,  with  little  or  no  explanation.  The  children 
wrote  on  the  blank  provided,  the  information  part  of  which  had  been 
previously  filled  out:  items  1,  2,  and  4  by  the  teacher;  3,  5,  6,  and 
7  by  the  child  with  the  teacher's  help,  and  8  by  the  child  alone. 
These  papers  were  then  collected,  put  into  an  envelope  and  labelled 
by  the  assistant  as  to  school,  grade,  room,  teacher,  time  test  began, 
and  with  a  full  statement  of  any  irregularities  or  special  conditions 
influencing  the  test.  All  the  envelopes  from  one  building  were 
finally  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  chief  assistant  for  the  building, 
who  delivered  them  at  the  office  of  the  Bureau  of  Information,  Sta- 
tistics, and  Educational  Research.  Here  also  the  principals  sent  the 
teachers'  blanks  which  had  previously  been  filled  out. 

THE  NATURE  OF  THE  TEST  GIVEN. 

The  test  given  was  that  devised  by  Dr.  Leonard  P.  Ayres,  which 
he  used  in  the  Springfield  Survey*,  which  was  later  used  in  the 
Butte,  Montana,  Survey**,  and  since  embodied  in  a  complete  spell- 
ing scale.**  It  is  composed  of  seventy  words,  ten  words  for  each 
grade,  2  to  8  inclusive,  shown  in  table  1. 

TABLE  1. 
Word  Lists. 


GRADE  2 

1  foot 

2  get 

3  for 

4  horse 

5  cut 

6  well 

7  name 

8  room 

9  left 
10  with 


GRADE  3 

1  fill 

2  point 

3  state 

4  ready 

5  almost 

6  high 

7  event 

8  done 

9  pass 

10  Tuesday 


GRADE  4 

1  forty 

2  rates 

3  children 

4  prison 

5  title 

6  getting 

7  need 

8  throw 

9  feel 
10  speak 


GRADE  5 

1  several 

2  leaving 

3  publish 

4  o'clock 

5  running 

6  known 

7  secure 

8  wait 

9  manner 
10  flight 


*The  Public   Schools  of   Springfield,   Illinois,    "an  educational   survey"    Division  of 
Education,  Russell  Sage  Foundation,   E  137,  N.  Y.   1914. 

**Report   of  a    Survey   on   the    School    System   of   Butte,    Montana,    Board  of   Edu- 
cation, Butte,  Montana. 

***A    measuring    scale    for    ability    in    spelling,    Leonard    P.    Ayres,    Russell    Sage 
Foundation,    N.   Y.,   1915. 


OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

GRADE  6  GRADE  7  GRADE  8 

1  decide  1  district  1  petrified 

2  general  2  consideration  2  tariff 

3  manner  3  athletic  3  emergency 

4  too  4  distinguish  4  corporation 

5  automobile  5  evidence  5  convenience 

6  victim  6  conference  6  receipt 

7  hospital  7  amendment  7  cordially 

8  neither  8  liquor  8  discussion 

9  toward  9  experience  9  appreciate 
30  business  10  receive  10  decision 

These  words  were  chosen  from  a  large  list  used  by  the  Division 
of  Education  of  the  Russell  Sage  Foundation  in  an  investigation  of 
the  spelling  ability  of  children  in  elementary  schools.  Taking  the 
1000  words,  found  by  a  previous  exhaustive  investigation  to  be  most 
commonly  used  in  writing,  these  words  were  made  into  lists,  with 
which  children  in  nearly  100  American  cities  were  tested.  On  the 
basis  of  these  tests  the  words  were  then  classified  in  groups  by 
grades,  each  word  being  placed  in  the  grade  wherein  if  had  been 
correctly  spelled  on  an  average  by  70  per  cent,  of  the  children. 
That  is,  the  10  words  for  grade  2  were  spelled  correctly  by  70  per 
cent,  and  incorrectly  by  30  per  cent,  of  second  grade  pupils  in  these 
100  cities,  and  similarly  for  each  of  the  other  grade  groups. 

Thus  the  standard  established  by  this  exhaustive  test  of  each 
word  comes  to  be  70  per  cent.  This  not  only  means  that  each  of 
the  10  words  in  grade  3  is  equally  difficult  for  children  of  grade  3 
(and  similarly  of  the  words  in  the  other  groups  for  their  respective 
grades),  but  that  the  words  in  grade  3  are  just  as  difficult,  and  no 
more  so,  for  the  3rd  grade  children  as  are  the  words  in  the  4th 
grade  for  the  4th  grade  children,  the  5th  grade  words  for  5th  grade 
children,  etc.,  for  all  the  grades.  This  means  that  the  children  of 
Oakland  are  being  measured  against  the  children  in  these  other 
cities,  as  well  as  against  each  other,  and  will  be  classed  as  high  or 
low  accordingly  as  individuals,  classes,  grades,  schools,  and  the  city 
as  a  whole  make  above  or  below  70  per  cent  in  the  test.. 

SCOPE  OF  THE  TEST. 

This  test  was  given  in  40  of  the  41  schools  in  the  city,  to  a  total 
of  12,985  children,  by  grades  as  follows: 

TABLE  2. 


Orade                          

0 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

Total 

Number   

657 

2495 

2385 

2171 

2154 

1805 

1293 

l:».ir,n 

This  small  number  in  grade  2  is  clue  to  the  fact  that  the  2nd 
grade  test  was  given  in  only  a  few  schools  and  that  the  test  was 
so  evidently  a  test  in  penmanship  in  a  very  few  classes  that  the 


INTRODUCTION  5 

papers  had  to  be  discarded.  The  records  of  these  657  are  probably 
typical  of  what  the  better  2nd  grade  classes  can  do.  They  are 
treated  separately  everywhere  for  the  reason  that  it  is  a  deliberate 
part  of  the  school  policy  in  Oakland  to  lay  little  stress  on  spelling 
in  the  first  year,  not  teaching  it  at  all  before  the  last  6  weeks  of  the 
year;  to  lay  no  great  stress  on  writing  in  the  first  year,  save  for 
coarse  blackboard  work ;  and  to  do  nothing  with  written  composition 
before  the  second  half  of  the  second  year. 

SCORING  THE  PAPERS. 

The  scoring  of  these  papers  was  done  in  part  by  a  group  of 
Stanford  University  students  of  education,  several  of  whom  were 
teachers  of  experience,  and  in  part  by  teachers  and  principals  in 
Oakland.  In  the  latter  case  the  papers  were  removed  from  the 
envelope,  bound  by  a  clip,  and  given  a  code  number  by  the  director 
of  the  Bureau  of  Information,  Statistics,  and  Educational  Research. 
They  were  then  given  out  to  be  scored,  after  which  they  were  re- 
turned to  their  proper  envelope.  The  scores  and  errors  were  re- 
corded on  a  printed  record  sheet  designed  for  that  purpose,  in 
which  the  records  of  boys  and  girls  were  kept  separate  by  grades. 
Where  two  grades  were  in  one  room  their  papers  were  placed  in 
two  separate  envelopes  and  their  standings  recorded  on  separate 
record  sheets.  The  errors  were  scored  on  the  record  sheet  for 
each  word  separately,  so  that  if  desirable  a  study  of  the  relative 
difficulty  of  the  words  could  be  made.  Enough  of  the  markings 
and  records  were  examined  with  care  by  the  writer  to  satisfy  him 
that  the  work  had  .been  done  accurately. 

THE  STUDY  OF  THE  RESULTS. 

After  the  scoring  had  been  completed,  all  spelling  blanks,  record 
sheets,  and  teachers'  blanks  were  filed  in  alphabetical  order  by 
schools,  and  the  tabulations  and  study  of  the  data  begun. 

The  first  task,  (Chapter  2)  was  the  main  statistical  handling  of 
the  children's  scores  in  the  tests.  These  results  are  presented  by 
schools,  by  grades,  and  for  the  city  as  a  whole,  accompanied  by 
diagrams  and  tables,  showing  the  complete  distribution  of  the  chil- 
dren of  each  grade  by  the  scores  they  made  in  the  test. 

The  third  chapter  deals  with  the  influence  of  individual  differ- 
ences in  age,  sex,  and  general  school  standing;  the  fourth  with  the 
influence  of  such  social  factors  as  the  father's  occupation,  nationality, 
the  home  language,  and  the  child's  occupational  ambition.  Chapter  5 
presents  the  results  of  the  tests  in  the  light  of  the  administration  and 
teaching  of  spelling,  dealing  with  the  special  matters  of  time  dis- 
tribution, the  lesson  assignments,  teaching  methods,  etc. 


OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  BY  SCHOOLS,  GRADES,  ETC.  9 

represents  the  average  standing  for  the  best  grade  in  each  school, 
and  the  number  of  that  grade  is  indicated  for  each  school  by  a  figure 
immediately  below  the  number  of  the  school.  In  like  manner  the 
grade  receiving  the  lowest  standing  is  indicated  for  each  school  by 
the  lower  line  of  the  diagram,  below  which  is  the  row  of  figures 
indicating  which  grade  has  received  such  standing.  Between  the 
upper  and  lower  lines  is  a  third  line  which  represents  the  average 
standing  of  the  schools,  while  the  heavy  straight  line  marks  the 
standing  achieved  in  other  cities.  On  the  right,  a  short  horizontal 
bar  marks  the  line  on  which  the  city  average  would  fall  if  shown 
on  the  diagram.  Thus  each  school,  as  well  as  the  best  and  poorest 
grades  of  the  school,  may  be  conveniently  compared  with  achieve- 
ments in  other  cities,  as  well  as  with  other  schools  in  Oakland. 
Similarly  all  comparisons  may  be  made  with  the  average  for  the 
city  as  a  whole,  which  for  grades  3  to  8  is  77.4  per  cent.,  or  with  the 
2nd  grade  included,  76.5  per  cent. 

THE  CITY  AS  A  WHOLE. 

At  a  glance,  therefore,  it  appears  that  the  average  for  all  schools 
in  the  city  stands  7.4  per  cent,  higher  than  the  average  standings 
made  in  other  cities,  that  the  line  representing  the  highest  grade 
averages  is  uniformly  high  above  the  70  per  cent,  mark,  that  the 
line  representing  the  lowest  grade  averages  is  also  relatively  high, 
while  in  only  a  few  cases  are  either  of  these  extremes  strikingly 
high  or  low.  If  the  28  2nd  grade  classes  which  took  the  test  were 
included,  this  difference  would  not  be  materially  changed,  as  will 
appear  later.  In  general,  therefore,  the  spelling  in  Oakland  is  de- 
cidedly superior.  The  extent  to  which  this  remains  true  in  particu- 
lar will  appear  later. 


COMPARISON  OF  SCHOOLS. 

A  study  of  this  diagram  by  schools,  at  once  reveals  the  zigzag 
nature  of  the  middle  line  representing  school  averages.  The  fact 
that  the  school  averages  for  23  schools  fall  below  77.4,  the  average 
for  all  children  in  the  city,  that  3  schools  make  just  the  city  average, 
leaving  14  schools  to  offset  the  low  averages  in  23  schools,  indicates 
that  the  larger  schools  did  the  best  spelling.  That  is,  school  No.  1 
with  over  700  children  tested,  makes  an  average  of  almost  81  per 
cent,  while  school  No.  23,  with  the  same  number  of  grades  but  with 
only  250  children  tested,  averages  below  71  per  cent.  The  widest 
difference  between  school  averages  being  shown  by  school  No.  5, 
with  an  average  of  82.8  per  cent,  and  school  No.  38,  with  an  average 
of  63.7  per  cent  (neither  of  these  schools  contain  grades  7  and  8). 
Further  evidence  that  the  large  schools  are  responsible  for  the  high 
city  average  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  every  grade  average  in  three 


OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 


o 

I 


< 
3 


.§ 

w 

H 


*l 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  BY  SCHOOLS,  GRADES,  ETC.  9 

represents  the  average  standing  for  the  best  grade  in  each  school, 
and  the  number  of  that  grade  is  indicated  for  each  school  by  a  figure 
immediately  below  the  number  of  the  school.  In  like  manner  the 
grade  receiving  the  lowest  standing  is  indicated  for  each  school  by 
the  lower  line  of  the  diagram,  below  which  is  the  row  of  figures 
indicating  which  grade  has  received  such  standing.  Between  the 
upper  and  lower  lines  is  a  third  line  which  represents  the  average 
standing  of  the  schools,  while  the  heavy  straight  line  marks  the 
standing  achieved  in  other  cities.  On  the  right,  a  short  horizontal 
bar  marks  the  line  on  which  the  city  average  would  fall  if  shewn 
on  the  diagram.  Thus  each  school,  as  well  as  the  best  and  poorest 
grades  of  the  school,  may  be  conveniently  compared  with  achieve- 
ments in  other  cities,  as  well  as  with  other  schools  in  Oakland. 
Similarly  all  comparisons  may  be  made  with  the  average  for  the 
city  as  a  whole,  which  for  grades  3  to  8  is  77.4  per  cent.,  or  with  the 
2nd  grade  included,  76.5  per  cent. 

THE  CITY  AS  A  WHOLE. 

At  a  glance,  therefore,  it  appears  that  the  average  for  all  schools 
in  the  city  stands  7.4  per  cent,  higher  than  the  average  standings 
made  in  other  cities,  that  the  line  representing  the  highest  grade 
averages  is  uniformly  high  above  the  70  per  cent,  mark,  that  the 
line  representing  the  lowest  grade  averages  is  also  relatively  high, 
while  in  only  a  few  cases  are  either  of  these  extremes  strikingly 
high  or  low.'  If  the  28  2nd  grade  classes  which  took  the  test  were 
included,  this  difference  would  not  be  materially  changed,  as  will 
appear  later.  In  general,  therefore,  the  spelling  in  Oakland  is  de- 
cidedly superior.  The  extent  to  which  this  remains  true  in  particu- 
lar will  appear  later. 


COMPARISON  OF  SCHOOLS. 

A  study  of  this  diagram  by  schools,  at  once  reveals  the  zigzag 
nature  of  the  middle  line  representing  school  averages.  The  fact 
that  the  school  averages  for  23  schools  fall  below  77.4,  the  average 
for  all  children  in  the  city,  that  3  schools  make  just  the  city  average, 
leaving  14  schools  to  offset  the  low  averages  in  23  schools,  indicates 
that  the  larger  schools  did  the  best  spelling.  That  is,  school  No.  1 
with  over  700  children  tested,  makes  an  average  of  almost  81  per 
cent,  while  school  No.  23,  with  the  same  number  of  grades  but  with 
only  250  children  tested,  averages  below  71  per  cent.  The  widest 
difference  between  school  averages  being  shown  by  school  No.  5, 
with  an  average  of  82.8  per  cent,  and  school  No.  38,  with  an  average 
of  63.7  per  cent  (neither  of  these  schools  contain  grades  7  and  8). 
Further  evidence  that  the  large  schools  are  responsible  for  the  high 
city  average  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  every  grade  average  in  three 


10  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

entire  schools,  no  one  of  which  includes  over  250  children  in  the 
test,  fall  entirely  below  the  city  average. 

By  a  study  of  the  upper  and  lower  edges  of  the  shaded  portion 
of  the  diagram  one  sees  precisely  this  same  thing,  only  somewhat 
exaggerated.  The  highest  grade  averages  made  by  schools  25,  36, 
and  40,  all  small  schools,  are  entirely  below  the  lowest  grade  aver- 
age made  in  7  of  the  other  schools,  5  of  which  are  among  the  largest 
schools  in  the  city. 

Not  only  is  there  a  marked  difference  between  schools  in  these 
respects,  but  also  in  respect  to  the  wide  differences  in  the  range 
occupied  by  the  grade  standings  in  different  schools.  This  is  quickly 
seen  by  comparing  the  width  of  the  shaded  portion  of  the  diagram 
at  different  points.  The  grades  in  school  No.  18  make  average 
standings  ranging  from  66  per  cent,  in  grade  3  to  86  per  cent,  in 
grade  6 ;  school  No.  38,  from  37  per  cent,  in  grade  3  to  almost  81 
per  cent,  in  grade  6 ;  while  the  range  in  school  No.  5  is  only .  from 
79  to  81  per  cent. ;  and  in  No.  25  from  61  to  72  per  cent.  The  ex- 
treme range  in  average  grade  standings  for  all  the  schools  is  from 
a  difference  of  2  per  cent,  in  school  No.  5  to  a  difference  of  44  per 
cent  in  school  No.  38.  A  glance  at  the  width  of  the  shading  for 
different  schools  impresses  one  with  this  rather  wide  difference  in 
the  efficiency  of  different  grades  in  the  same  school.  This  will  be 
further  examined  later.  Meantime  attention  is  called  to  the  two 
rows  of  figures  indicating  the  grades  receiving  the  highest  averages 
in  each  of  the  40  schools.  These  are  brought  together  in  Table 
4,  which  shows  that  the  poor  spelling,  so  far  as  grade  averages 


TABLE  4. 

Grade   

.     3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

No. 

of 

schools 

in  which 

it  receives  highest 

average... 

.     0 

3 

21 

8 

5 

2 

No. 

of 

schools 

in  which 

it  receives  lowest  average  

.  33 

1 

0 

0 

0 

4 

count,  is  found  mainly  in  the  3rd  grade,  while  the  5th  grade  most 
often  ranks  highest.  In  no  school  does  the  3rd  grade  rank  highest, 
nor  do  grades  5,  6,  or  7  receive  the  lowest  average  in  any  school. 
With  all  the  above  differences  between  schools  there  is  this  similar- 
ity, viz.  that  the  3rd  grade  uniformly  ranks  low,  and  the  5th  grade 
high. 

COMPARISON  OF  GRADES  AND  CLASSES. 

This  same  fact  is  emphasized  further  by  Table  5,  the  facts  for 
which  are  made  clearer  by  diagram  2.  Here  the  standings  for  all 
the  8th  grade  children  throughout  the  city  have  been  averaged,  and 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  BY  SCHOOLS,  GRADES,  ETC. 
TABLE  5. 


11 


Showing  Average  for  All  Children  in  the  City  by  Grades,  and  the  Highest  and 
Lowest  Standing  Made  in  Each  Grade. 


GRADE 
VIII 

GRADE 

VII 

GRADE 
VI 

GRADE 

V 

GRADE 
IV 

GRADE 
III 

GRADE 

II 

Highest 
Class  Ave  

86.3 

88.7 

90  7 

93  6 

87  3 

888 

87  5 

Average 
for  grade 

763 

797 

802 

84  7 

759 

66  7 

60  4 

Lowest 
Class  Ave 

64  3 

710 

600 

66  1 

58  7 

23  3 

23  5 

similarly  for  the  children  of  each  of  the  other  grades,  figures  for 
which  are  shown  in  the  second  line  in  Table  5,  and  graphically  by 
the  central  line  in  diagram  2.  From  grade  8  this  curve  rises  grad- 
ually to  grade  5,  and  then  descends  more  abruptly  to  grade  2,  which 
is  included  in  this  diagram  for  the  sake  of  comparison.  From  this 


DIAGRAM  2. 
Distribution  by  Grades  and  Classes  for  City  as  a  Whole. 


"ynr 


too; 


90 
HIGHEST  CLASS    AVERAW 

AvrRA&e   FOR  O.RAOE- 
10 

LOWEST  CLASS  AVER  AGE - 
40 


5o 

40 
Jo 

10 


isr      m      n 


V7> 


CITV 


12  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

it  is  seen  that  averages  for  grades  5,  6,  and  7,  stand  higher  than 
the  average  for  the  city  as  a  whole  (grades  3-8),  and  that  averages 
for  grades  2,  3,  4,  and  8  fall  below  the  city  average,  the  widest  dif- 
ference between  grades  being  18  per  cent,  which  is  the  differenc 
between  the  averages  for  grades  5  and  3,  or  24.3  per  cent,  if  grade 
2  be  counted.  Eighteen  per  cent,  is  a  wide  difference,  but  when  we 
pass  above  grade  3  this  difference  falls  immediately  to  less  than 
9  per  cent,  which  fact  further  places  the  responsibility  for  the  poor 
spelling  on  the  low  grades.  Measuring  the  grades  against  each 
other,  and  against  the  city  average,  we  see  that  while  the  child  is 
doing  poor  work  in  grades  2  and  3  (poor  also  as  measured  by 
achievements  in  other  cities),  his  rate  of  improvement  is  rapid  till 
the  fifth  grade  is  reached,  but  that  this  rate  is  not  only  not  main- 
tained, but  that  it  materially  decreases  through  the  subsequent  three 
years.  An  explanation  of  this  attainment  for  the  5th  grade  may 
lie  partly  in  the  fact  that  a  careful  review  of  spelling  is  made  during 
this  year. 

A  study  of  averages,  however,  is  only  a  rough  method  at  best, 
and  may  not  reveal  the  most  important  differences  in  the  efficiency 
of  the  different  grades.  In  this  same  table  is  presented  the  records 
of  the  best  and  of  the  poorest  class  averages  found  throughout  the 
city,  for  each  grade.  In  the  diagram  these  facts  are  shown  by  the 
upper  and  lower  margins  of  the  shaded  surface.  This  brings  out  a 
few  characteristics  of  the  work  in  the  different  grades  which  does 
not  appear  in  a  study  of  grade  averages  alone.  The  variability  of 
classes  within  each  grade  is  quite  an  important  item,  and  may  be 
very  effective  in  helping  to  show  up  some  of  the  important  admin- 
istrative and  teaching  problems.  The  less  variability  among  the 
classes  of  a  given  grade  the  greater  the  probability  that  a  consistent 
policy  is  being  pursued  in  the  teaching  of  spelling  in  that  grade; 
while  great  variability  would  tend  to  indicate  a  lack  of  uniformity 
in  the  administration  and  teaching.  This  does  not  mean  to  imply 
that  absolute  uniformity  in  results  is  either  possible  or  desirable.  A 
question  is  fairly  raised  as  to  the  desirability  of  having  a  uniform 
plan  for  handling  this  particular  subject,  not,  of  course,  for  all 
grades,  but  for  all  classes  of  a  given  grade,  regardless  of  the  nature 
of  the  community  or  school  conditions.  Clearly  various  factors 
would  enter  to  make  such  uniformity  unwise  and  impracticable,  and 
similarly  uniform  results  would  be  difficult  to  obtain.  However, 
teaching  standards  should  not  be  confused  with  the  nature  of  the 
content  taught.  Differences  in  content  for  different  types  of  com- 
munities, which  at  most  would  be  very  slight,  need  not  demand  wide 
differences  in  the  standard  maintained. 

No  theoretical  answer  is  offered  for  this  question  here,  but  at- 
tention is,  directed  to  the  facts  presented  in  our  table  and  diagram, 
which  show  that  this  fact  of  variability  of  classes  within  a  given 
grade  is  widely  different  in  different  grades.  The  fifth  grade  does 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  BY  SCHOOLS,  GRADES,  ETC.  13 

not  occupy  first  place  now,  though  it  still  stands  above  the  earlier 
grades.  The  classes  in  grade  7  are  least  variable  and  those  in  grade 
3  most  variable,  even  including  grade  2.  The  class  standings  be- 
come more  and  more  uniform  until  grade  7  is  reached,  from  which 
grade  8  declines  slightly. 

The  range  in  class  standings  is  so  great  here  that  it  is  clearly 
evident  (though  not  proved  by  this  test)  that  the  class  represented 
by  the  lower  margin  of  the  shading  for  grade  3  is  as  much  below 
the  class  represented  by  the  upper  margin  of  the  same  grade  as  the 
3rd  grade  is  below  the  4th  grade.  While  this  overlapping  between 
grades  cannot  be  measured  quantitatively  here,  it  is  clearly  very 
marked.  Just  what  variability  of  classes  within  a  grade  should 
normally  be  expected  would  naturally  depend,  1st.  upon  whether 
or  not  the  subject  matter  of  this  branch  of  the  curriculum  is  really 
organized  by  years  (the  subject  matter  for  each  year  representing 
a  definite  amount  of  work  to  be  done),  and  2nd.  upon  the  extent  to 
which  promotion  in  spelling  is  made  only  upon  the  basis  of  having 
attained  a  certain  standard  of  efficiency,  which  is  uniform  for  all 
grades  and  schools,  in  the  subject  matter  outlined  for  the  year.  If 
there  is  laxness  in  maintaining  a  standard  for  spelling  promotions, 
and  a  looseness  in  the  organization  of  the  subject  matter,  as  between 
schools,  and  grades,  then  a  wide  variability  in  class  averages  would 
naturally  result.  If  promotions  must  be  made  by  years  rather  than 
by  subjects  then  naturally  some  subjects  will  suffer  with  almost 
every  child.  No  system  of  grading  can  be  made  so  elastic  as  to 
completely  do  away  with  the  problem  of  individual  differences  with- 
in a  class,  unless  it  is  based  on  individual  attainment  by  subjects. 
Oakland  approaches  this  ideal,  in  that  promotions  may  be  made  at 
any  time,  and  are  regularly  made  semi-annually.  Yet,  whatever  this 
may  have  done  to  affect  a  better  classification  in  other  subjects,  it 
has  accomplished  little  or  nothing  for  spelling.1 

The  facts  shown  by  this  diagram  tend  to  argue,  particularly  in 

*Note:  It  is  fair  to  raise  the  question  as  to  the  liability  to  abuse  which  an 
ideally  elastic  system  of  grading  may  possess.  When  a  child  is  doing  well  in  his 
class  he  may  easily  go  unnoticed  by  his  teacher.  If  he  is  doing  excellent  work  he  is 
attractive  and  the  teacher  may  be  reluctant  to  recommend  his  promotion.  If  he  is 
stupid,  over  age,  and  not  so  attractive,  his  promotion  is  likely  to  be  recommended  as 
early  as  possible.  Thus,  without  a  regular  promotion  time,  annual,  semi-annual,  or 
quarterly,  the  child  is  less  likely  to  be  pushed  out  and  made  to  work  up  to  his  limit, 
and  the  dull  and  unattractive  child  is  more  likely  to  be  pushed  out  too  saon.  To 
shorten  the  promotion  periods  from  three  months  to  six  or  three  weeks,  is  to  increase 
the  probability  that  a  teacher  will  decide  to  keep  her  bright  children  one  more 
period — since  it  will  make  her  room  attractive  and  at  most  delay  the  children  but- 
little — and  to  risk  pushing  the  unattractive  ones  faster  than  they  should  go. 

This  is  a  feature  of  short  promotion  schemes  which  needs  study.  The  retardation 
figures  presented  later  tempt  one  to  think  that  the  short  promotion  periods  which  have 
been  possible  in  Oakland  may  have  been  a  contributing  cause  to  the  high  percentage 
of  retardation.  The  statistics  on  this  subject  ought  to  be  dealt  with  by  the  Bureau  of 
Information,  Statistics,  and  Educational  Research. 


14 


OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 


the  early  grades,  that  there  is  no  definite  grade  standard  of  spelling 
efficiency  maintained  in  the  city. 

INDIVIDUAL   STANDING   BY   GRADES. 

Thus  far  we  have  dealt  with  averages  or  central  tendencies  and 
with  coarse  measures  of  the  variability  of  groups.  These  methods 
are  adequate  for  certain  purposes,  but  tell  only  roughly  of  the  dis- 
tribution of  the  individual  standings  of  the  children.  For  this  pur- 
pose the  actual  distribution  of  scores  is  presented  in  Table  6.  This 
table  includes  over  12,000  individual  records,  and  shows  their  dis- 
tribution in  detail.  The  total  line  is  reduced  to  per  cents,  for  con- 
venience of  comparison. 

TABLE  6. 
Distribution  of  Standings  of  Individual  Pupils  by  Grades. 


GRADE 

Standings 

No.  of 

CHI 

100 

90  |  80  |  70 

60 

50  |  40 

30 

20 

10  |  0 

dren 

VIII   

263 
384 
533 
726 
368 
314 
2588 

21.0 

246 
476 
503 
554 
541 
442 
2765 

242 
359 
420 
358 
500 
384 

173 
242 
290 
248 
407 
337 

131 
148 
162 
119 
234 
246 

108 
93 
106 
81 
144 
227 

53 
55 
79 
44 
94 
189 

48 
28 
39 
26 
48 
142 

17 
15 
13 
8 
29 
100 

4 
5 
5 
6 
17 
68 

2 
0 
1 
1 
3 
46 

1293 
1805 
2154 
2171 
2385 
2495 

VII  

VI  

V 

IV 

III 

Total. 

2263 

1703 

1040 

759 

514 

331 

182 

105 

53 

12303 

Same  by 
per  cents  

22.5 

18.4 

13.8 

8.4 

6.2 

4.2 

2.7 

1.5 

.9 

.4 

100 

The  first  point  of  interest  is  seen  in  the  fact  that  slightly  over 
one  child  out  of  every  five,  made  a  standing  of  100  per  cent.  That 
is,  the  test  was  too  easy,  and  therefore  did  not  test  21  per  cent,  of 
the  children  in  grades  3  to  8.  Another  22.5  per  cent,  of  the  chil- 
dren made  90  per  cent,  on  the  test,  while  on  the  other  hand,  15.9 
per  cent,  of  the  children  received  a  standing  of  50  per  cent,  or  lower. 
Complete  distribution  of  individual  standings  for  grades  3  to  8  is 
shown  for  each  grade  separately  in  diagram  3. 

The  distribution  of  the  spelling  abilities  of  a  group  of  2000 
children  selected  at  random  regardless  of  grade  would  be  practically 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  BY  SCHOOLS,  GRADES,  ETC.  15 

DIAGRAM  3. 
Distribution  of  Standing  of  Pupils  by  Grades,  Showing  Medians 


GRADE 

2171   CHILDREN 


GRADE  13. 

2385  CHILDREN 


70  60  50   40  30  20  10 


IOC  90  8(    10  60  30  40    SO  tA  10    O 


ffoc. 


aoo. 


100. 


&RADE  3£T 

2154  CHILDREN 


100  90  »0  TO  40  50  40  30  20  10    O 


GRADE  HI 

2495  CHILDREN 


30  20  /O  O 


represented  by  a  probability  curve.  That 'is,  a  very  few  would  re- 
ceive 100  per  cent,  in  their  test  and  a  few  zero,  the  great  majority 
falling  around  40  to  60  per  cent.  A  school  grade  as  here  used  is 
a  selected  group,  and  the  words  of  the  test  are  selected  with  respect 
to  a  definite  degree  of  spelling  efficiency.  The  children  of  a  given 


16  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

grade  are  presumed  to  be  about  equal  in  spelling  efficiency,  that  be- 
ing the  reason  for  their  being  in  the  same  grade,  and  the  words  for 
each  grade  are,  by  test,  equally  difficult  for  many  hundreds  of  chil- 
dren of  the  grade  in  question.  We  should  therefore  not  expect  a 
chance  distribution  of  the  standings  for  any  grade  here,  containing 
from  1200  to  2400  children.  We  should  expect  a  very  definitely 
marked  central  tendency.  By  definite  arrangement  of  ihe  test 
(see  Chap.  1)  it  is  planned  to  make  the  central  tendency  around  70 
per  cent,  correctly  spelled.  An  examination  of  Diagram  3  shows 
that  in  but  one  grade  is  70  per  cent,  the  central  tendency,  as  judged 
by  the  median,  which  is  indicated  for  each  grade  by  a  thin  vertical 
line  marked  M.  In  every  case  the  curve  is  badly  skewed  toward 
the  high  standings.  So  the  distribution  of  individual  standings  is 
practically  like  the  the  distribution  of  classes  and  grades.  Even 
though  the  curve  is  skewed  toward  the  high  end,  yet  there  is  a  good- 
ly showing  at  the  low  end  as  well. 

To  what  extent  is  this  marked  diversity  to  be  expected  under  a 
reasonably  careful  handling  of  spelling  in  the  schools?  Grading, 
ideally,  means  grouping  children  of  like  efficiency  in  a  given  subject, 
or  of  like  capacity  for  handling  the  subject.  It  is  rarely  practicable 
to  attain  this  ideal  in  even  rare  cases.  First,  because  grade,  here, 
as  in  most  cities,  means  two  definite  groups  one-half  year  apart  in 
efficiency.  This  would  naturally  tend  to  give  us  a  distribution  of 
their  standings,  which,  if  plotted  on  the  curve  would  show  two  high 
frequency  points  in  place  of  one.  This  nowhere  occurs  in  Diagram 
2.  Again,  in  school  practice,  almost  every  school  promotes  a  few 
children  for  reasons  other  than  those  assigned  above.  There  are 
always  the  few  over-age  misfits.  Now  if  there  are  no  ungraded 
classes  to  which  these  can  conveniently  be  assigned,  they  are  pushed 
forward,  and  would  tend  to  push  our  curve  over  toward  the  low 
end.  Then  again,  there  is  the  child  who  comes  into  the  grade  from 
some  other  city,  or  from  the  country  school.  He  is  also  frequently 
very  hard  to  fit  into  any  grade,  and  may  easily  appear  either  far 
above  or  far  below  our  central  tendency.  Then  there  is  the  child 
behind  his  grade  because  of  illness,  and  the  one  behind  because  he 
has  jumped  a  grade.  All  these  cases  and  others  like  them  would 
tend  to  flatten  out  our  curve.  Yet  they  do  not  help  to  explain  the 
skewed  condition  we  find,  say  in  grade  5,  nor,  even  with  a  liberal 
allowance,  do  they  seem  to  explain  why  nearly  16  per  cent,  of  all 
the  children  in  the  city  receive  a  standing  of  only  50  per  cent,  or 
lower. 

The  cases  included  in  Diagram  2  have  been  brought  together, 
and  are  expressed  in  per  cents,  of  the  total  number  of  scores,  rather 
than  in  absolute  figures,  in  Diagram  4.  From  this  we  see  that  a 
larger  percentage  of  all  the  children  in  the  city  received  a  standing 
of  90  per  cent,  than  any  other  one  standing. 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  BY  SCHOOLS,  GRADES,  ETC.  17 


DIAGRAM  4. 

Distribution  of  Standings,  by  Per  Cents — for  Children  in  Grades 
3-8 — Showing  Median. 


^ba-ri^i 


fa  o 


If  the  test  had  been  difficult  enough  to  have  tested  to  their  limit 
the  21  per  cent  who  made  a  perfect  showing,  it  looks  very  much  as 
if  we  should  have  gotten  somewhere  near  a  chance  distribution  of 
the  standings  of  these  twelve  thousand  children.  But  the  test  was 
not  difficult  enough  so  we  can  only  speculate,  and  say  that  on  the 
average,  as  compared  with  other  cities,  the  Oakland  work  in  spelling 
is  decidedly  superior. 

Averages  are  not  full  statements  of  all  the  findings,  however. 
For  this  the  complete  distribution  of  standings  is  needed,  and  from 
this  it  appears  that  the  distribution  of  standings  for  most  classes 
and  grades  is  not  far  from  what  it  would  be  if  the  children  were 
not  graded  at  all.  That  is,  two  children  selected  at  random  from 
the  same  class  or  grade,  appear  to  be  no  more  nearly  equal  in  spell- 
ing efficiency  than  two  children  selected  at  random  from  two  ad- 
jacent grades.  Space  cannot  be  taken  to  prove  this  further  by 
citing  typical  records  of  classes,  but  a  study  of  these  individual 
records  by  classes  is  quite  as  confirmatory  of  this  statement  as  are 
the  above  facts.  Large  overlapping  is  apparent  in  every  grade,  but 
more  so  in  the  early  than  in  the  later  grades. 

Through  this  overlapping  the  evidence  appears  to  prove  that 
what  is  true  in  general  with  respect  to  spelling  efficiency  in  the  city, 
is  not  true  in  particular.  For,  after  allowing  liberally  for  all  condi- 
tions which  must  naturally  produce  a  variation  from  the  central 


18  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

tendency,  there  is  yet  too  wide  a  diversity  of  abilities  within  a  given 
class  or  grade.  So  wide,  in  fact,  that  the  word  "grade"  has  prac- 
tically no  meaning.  This  condition  raises  important  problems  in 
teaching  and  administration  which  should  command  attention. 

A  STUDY  OF  GRADE  II. 

The  data  for  grade  2  are  not  included  as  part  of  the  study  of  the 
whole  city,  because  tests  were  given  in  less  than  half  of  the  schools, 
and  where  given  did  not  always  include  all  the  2nd  grade  children  in 
the  school.  Consequently  the  results  cannot  fairly  be  compared  with 
results  from  other  grades. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  a  definite  policy  with  respect  to  the  place 
of  spelling  in  the  first  two  years'  work  is  in  operation  under  direc- 
tion of  a  special  supervisor  for  the  primary  grades ;  and  in  view  of 
the  fact  that  the  3rd  grade  ranks  extremely  low  as  compared  with 
other  grades,  it  seems  worth  while  not  only  to  study  the  data  ob- 
tained from  grade  2  separately,  but  to  study  it  as  fully  as  the  data 
will  permit. 

As  to  whether  it  is,  or  is  not,  worth  while  for  any  2nd  grade,  in 
any  city,  to  be  able  to  pass  this  test  in  spelling,  is  not  the  question 
here,  the  purpose  being,  first,  to  present  the  results  of  the  test,  and 
to  analyze  them  so  as  to  be  able  to  place  the  responsibility  for  the 
results  obtained.  We  wish  to  say,  in  terms  of  the  test,  how  well 
these  2nd  grade  classes  spell,  and  not  to  raise  here  the  question  of 
whether  it  is  desirable  to  have  them  spell  better. 

There  are  17  schools  represented,  varying  in  the  number  of  chil- 
dren per  school  from  9  to  110,  including  in  all,  657  children.  There 
are  28  classes  represented,  18  being  grade  2B  (the  upper  half  of 
grade  2)  and  10  being  grade  2A  classes.  In  some  schools  all  2nd 
grade  children,  are  included,  in  others,  only  those  of  the  upper  half, 
or  2B.  The  groups  are  treated  separately  therefore  and  without 
reference  to  the  school  concerned. 

It  should  be  stated  here  (see  Chap.  V)  that  those  of  grade 
2 A  had  had  six  weeks'  work  in  spelling  last  year  in  grade  1,  and 
about  eighteen  weeks'  work  this  year  before  the  test  was  made. 
The  upper  half  had  had  one-half  year  more  training  than  this. 

The  class  averages  for  the  2  groups  are  shown  separately  in  the 
upper  and  lower  solid  lines  in  diagram  5.  The  range  in  these  aver- 
ages is  large,  as  appears  in  Table  7.  The  average  for  the  2  are 
shown  separately  by  dotted  lines  on  the  diagram,  while  the  average 
for  the  two  combined  is  shown  by  the  solid  horizontal  line. 

It  will  be  seen  that  the  average  for  the  upper  group  is  22  per 
cent,  higher  than  the  average  for  the  lower  group,  neither  attaining 
the  70  per  cent,  made  in  other  cities,  and  that  their  combined  aver- 
age falls  almost  10  per  cent,  below  it.  The  zigzag  dotted  line  rep- 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  BY  SCHOOLS,  GRADES,  ETC. 


19 


DIAGRAM  5. 

Distribution  of  Class  Averages:      Grade  2B,  18  Classes; 
2A,  10  Classes. 


IS- 


resents  the  standings  of  the  B  classes  in  the  schools  from  which  the 
ten  A  classes  are  drawn,  each  B  class  record  being  plotted  opposite 
the  A  class  of  the  same  school.  The  lines  are  by  no  means  parallel. 
That  is,  the  difference  between  the  spelling  efficiency  in  the  A  and 
B  groups  in  one  school  is  no  evidence  of  what  it  will  be  in  another 


TABLE  7. 
Comparison  of  Standings  for  Grades  2A  and  2B. 


—2nd 

Grade- 

—  Grade  — 

—  Class 

Standing  — 

2B 

2A 

Both 

Highest    

87.5 

67.5 

87.5 

Lowest  •  

52.5 

23.5 

23.5 

Average    

69.0 

47.2 

60.2 

school.  Perhaps  this  should  not  be  drawn  on  too  heavily  as  evi- 
dence that  the  policy  for  spelling  is  not  carried  out  in  the  same  way 
in  all  schools,  but  it  certainly  points  that  way. 

The  distribution  of  individual  scores  for  the  grade  is  shown  by 
per  cents,  in  diagram  6.  It  appears  that  a  larger  percentage  of  the 
children  received  a  score  of  90  than  that  receiving  any  other  one 
score.  The  median  here  falls  upon  70.  A  comparison  of  this  with 
diagram  4,  which  shows  grades  3  to  8  in  this  same  way,  makes 


20 


OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 


DIAGRAM  6. 
Distribution  of  Standings  for  Grade  2  by  Per  Cents. 

A 


100  <\0  SO  Jt)  60  50  to  3020  /O    O 


diagram  6  appear  very  flat.  And  even  when  compared  with  the 
distribution  of  standings  for  grade  3,  it  appears  extremely  low,  in 
spite  of  the  fact  that  the  averages  of  the  two  are  not  so  wide  apart. 

It  is  evident  then,  that  grade  2B  ranks  almost  as  high  as  grade  3. 
While  the  grade  average  is  slightly  lower,  its  class  averages  are  not 
so  variable.  On  the  other  hand,  grade  2A,  not  one  class  excepted, 
falls  far  below  by  every  measure. 

If  the  fact  that  some  classes  were  not  included  means  that  they 
would  rank  still  lower  than  those  tested,  then  the  children  in  Oak- 
land learn  very  little  spelling  during  the  first  year  and  a  quarter,  so 
far  as  can  be  measured  by  this  test. 

It  remains  to  be  added  that  when  the  results  of  grade  2  are 
added  to  those  for  the  other  grades  the  average  for  the  city  is  76.5 
per  cent.,  which  is  .9  per  cent,  lower  by  the  addition  of  this  grade. 

SUMMARY   AND   CONCLUSIONS. 

The  investigation  includes  12,985  children  from  grades  2  to  8 
inclusive,  in  40  schools,  and  shows  the  following  results : 

1.  For  the  city  as  a  whole,  and  for  grades  above  the  3rd,  the 
standing  is  decidedly  high,  being  7.4%  above  the  averages  in  other 
cities,  or  6.5%  higher  if  the  2nd  grade  is  included. 

2.  The  differences  between  the  averages  for  different  schools  is 
pronounced,  the  high  averages  being  maintained  on  the  whole  by 
the  larger  schools,  and  the  low  averages  by  the  small  schools. 

3.     Similarly  there  is  a  wide  range  in  the  variability  of  grade 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  BY  SCHOOLS,  GRADES,  ETC.  21 

averages  within  various  schools,  all  grades  in  one  school  receiving 
close  to  the  same  average,  while  in  another  school  they  range  from 
37.5%  in  grade  3,  to  80.8%  in  grade  5,  grade  3  being  uniformly 
low,  and  grade  5  uniformly  high. 

4.  When  the  standings  of  all  the  children  in  the  city  are  brought 
together  by  grades,  this  same  fact  is  emphasized  by  the  wide  range 
in  grade  averages.     The  difference  between  the  averages  for  grade 
3  (the  lowest  grade  average)  and  grade  5  being  18%,  which  rises  to 
24.3%  if  grade  2  be  included. 

5.  The  averages  for  the  classes  within  any  grade  represent  a 
still  greater  variability  than  we  find  between  grade  averages.     This 
range  is  greatest  in  grade  3,  and  least  in  grade  7. 

6.  A  distribution  of  individual  scores  by  grades  shows  the  same 
extreme  variability,  and  this  obtains  also  in  a  marked  way  between 
the  individuals  in  the  same  class. 

7.  Over  one-fifth  of  the  children  were  not  fully  tested  because 
they  spelled  -all  the  words  correctly. 

8.  About  1  child  in  10  spelled  less  than  half  the  words  correctly. 

9.  The  upper  half  of  grade  2  ranks  little  lower  than  grade  3, 
but  the  lower  half  of  grade  2  shows  very  low  standing. 

10.  Practically   all  these   showings   point    to    a    serious  over- 
lapping between  grades,  so  marked  in  grades  2  and  3  as  practically 
to  destroy  the  meaning  of  the  term  grade.     Which  means  that  the 
high  general  showing  for  the  city  as  a  whole,  and  for  all  grades 
above  the  3rd,  does  not  obtain  in  particular  when  applied  to  classes 
and  individuals. 

11.  It  must  be  said  then,  that,  as  between  separate  schools,  and 
as  between  separate  grades  in  the  same  schools,  there  is  evidenc 
that  no  definite  standards  for  administering  this  branch  of  the  cur- 
riculum exist.     That  is,  a  child  graduating  from  school  No.  5  is 
probably  12%.  more  efficient  in  spelling  than  is  a  child  graduating 
from  school  No.  23,  and  still  greater  differences  exist  between  other 
schools.     Similarly  it  would  appear  that  a  lower  standard  for  spell- 
ing efficiency  is  used  as  a  basis  for  promoting  a  3rd  grade  child,  in 
most  every  school,  than  that  used  for  promoting  a  5th  grade  child. 
This  is  undesirable  in  school  practice.     It  may  be  that  less  emphasis, 
relative   to  other   studies,   should   be   placed   upon   spelling  in  one 
year  than  in  another,  but  if  so,  the  amount  of  work  to  be  done 
should  be  adjusted  accordingly,  so  that  the  quality  of  work  will  not 
suffer. 

12.  If  the  subject-matter  is  to  be  determined,  not  by  a  text 
alone,  but  also  by  current  use  in  written  exercises,  then  a  systematic 
gathering  and  classifying  of  words  from  the  latter  source  should  be 
made  an  immediate  object  of  study  for  teachers  and  supervisors. 


22  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

One  or  two  years  of  this  work  throughout  all  schools  would  furnish 
practically  all  the  material  that  is  to  be  used  from  this  source.  The 
words  so  gathered  could  be  classified  by  grades  in  the  order  of  their 
probable  need  and  difficulty  and  made  into  supplementary  lists  to 
accompany  the  text.  This  would  help  to  systematize  the  subject- 
matter  and  furnish  a  basis  for  standardizing  the  work. 

13.  Efficient  work  cannot  be  carried  on  in  a  class  whose  pupils 
are  sixty  to  ninety  per  cent,  apart  in  abilities.     Such  extreme  dif- 
ferences are  not  rare,  and  represent  a  teaching  problem  which,  in 
most  other  subjects  would  be  regarded  as  practically  impossible  to 
handle.     In   spelling,   it   is,   from  the   standpoint  of   real   teaching, 
quite  as  impossible  to  handle,  and  is  likely  to  induce  many  teachers 
to  resort  to  extremely  unpedagogical  methods.     In  such  a  class  a 
proper  assignment  for  the  children  of  80  to  100  per  cent,  ability  is 
an  imposition  on  children  of  zero  and  10  per  cent,  ability.     If  pupils 
can  be  classified  in  arithmetic  they  can  also  be  classified  in  spelling. 

14.  That  the  showing  for  grades  2A  and  3A  is  extremely  poor 
as  compared  with  our  70  per  cent,   standard,  cannot  be  doubted. 
The  present  policy  with  respect  to  spelling,  as  laid  down  by  the 
supervisor  of  primary  work,  may  account  for  this   (for  fuller  dis- 
cussion of  this  point  see  Chap.  V).     The  2nd  grade  in  Butte  aver- 
aged 86.2  per  cent,  correct,  the  2nd  grade  in  Springfield  made  even 
70  per  cent.,  while  for  Oakland  its  average  is  60.2  per  cent.     That 
for  the  upper  half  of  the  grade,  however,  is  69,  or  practically  up 
to  the  standard.       Somewhat  the  same  condition  exists  in  grade  3, 
though  with  some  less  emphasis.     Which  indicates  that  by  the  mid- 
dle of  the  3rd  year  the  Oakland  children  average  well  up  to  the 
standard,  and  then  rise  rapidly  above  it.     It  does  not  appear,  there- 
fore, that  this  low  showing  is  of  any  serious  moment,  since  children 
below  the  4th   grade   rarely   need   spelling.     Two   questions  arise, 
however:  what  gain  is  there  in  deferring  the  serious  study  of  spell- 
ing for  the  first  two  or  three  years ;  and,  what  is  the  loss  in  having 
the  added  burden  later?     The  gain  must  be  in  relieving  the  early 
years  of  much  rather  formal  study,  and  so  adding  to  the  content  and 
expression  sides  of  their  training;  the  loss  must  be  in  adding  to 
the  later  grades  more  of  the  formal,  and  so  consuming  time  that 
should  be  used  otherwise.1 

The  writer  believes  that  the  gain  is  greater  than  the  loss,  pro- 
viding :  first,  that  this  opportunity  for  the  early  grades  exists ;  sec- 
ond, that  evidence  can  be  given  that  achievement  in  reading,  lan- 
guage, etc.,  in  these  grades  is  superior ;  and  third,  that  the  fourth 

*It  is  not  proved  yet  that  from  the  standpoint  of  spelling  alone,  it  is  an  advan- 
tage to  delay  the  teaching  of  spelling.  It  may  be  so  much  easier  for  a  3rd  grade 
child  to  learn  how  to  spell  the  word  horse  than  it  is  for  a  first  or  second  grade 
child  to  learn  it  that  it  pays  (from  the  standpoint  of  spelling)  to  delay.  On  the  other 
hand,  we  have  no  proof  of  the  opposite  position,  hence  it  is  at  present  impossible  to 
furnish  experimental  evidence  that  the  practice  in  other  cities  is  wrong. 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  BY  SCHOOLS,  GRADES,  ETC.  23 

grade  work  in  arithmetic,  language,  etc.,  is  suffering  no  handicap 
because  of  the  extra  work  in  catching  up  in  spelling. 

In  the  light  of  the  achievements  in  2nd  and  3rd  grade  spelling 
in  other  cities — which  seems  to  argue  against  slighting  spelling  in 
the  early  grades — some  investigation  of  reading  and  language  effi- 
ciency in  these  grades  would  be  desirable,  and  is  recommended. 
These  need  not  be  xhaustive,  but  should  cover  the  early  grades  in 
typical  schools. 

Further  light  is  thrown  on  this  situation  in  chapter  V,  which 
tends  to  show  that  from  the  point  of  view  of  time  these  grades  are 
not  neglecting  this  subject  any  more  than  are  the  other  grades, 
which  argues  more  strongly  still  for  a  study  of  results  in  these 
other  subjects. 

Present  practice  in  any  of  the  school  subjects  is  not  sufficiently 
professionalized,  and  free  from  the  force  of  tradition,  to  make  it  a 
final  argument  for  or  against  a  given  practice.  The  comparative 
method  of  study  has  its  merits,  however,  and  its  showing  cannot 
wisely  be  ignored  till  experimental  evidence  displaces  it. 

15.  The  excellent  showing  which  the  city  has  made  as  a  whole 
must  neither  blind  us  to  these  very  genuine  problems ;  nor  must  we 
fail  to  examine  into  the  reasons  for  this  high  showing,  as  well  as 
into  the  fact  that  no  standards  with  respect  to  the  subject-matter 
and  administration  of  the  subject  of  spelling  seem  to  exist;  and  as 
far  as  possible  into  the  time  cost  at  which,  and  the  method  by  which, 
the  showing  is  made.  These  are  problems  for  succeeding  chapters.. 


CHAPTER  III. 

SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  INDIVIDUAL  DIFFERENCES. 

THE  PROBLEM. 

The  above  results  have  been  stated  in  terms  of  schools,  grades, 
classes,  and  individuals.  Differences  between  schools,  and  between 
grades  were  noted  in  interpreting  results,  but  no  attempt  was  made 
to  interpret  the  results  for  children  in  terms  of  individuality.  Each 
child  was  counted  a  child  only.  Yet  we  are  conscious  of  the  fact 
that  children  are  not  alike,  and  that  their  differences  are  the  begin- 
nings of  many  important  school  problems. 

To  say  that  the  city  as  a  whole,  or  that  a  class  as  a  whole,  made 
a  given  standing  tells  very  little.  Furthermore,  to  show  the  distri- 
bution of  standings  for  a  class,  or  for  a  school,  does  not  indicate 
the  causes  contributing  to  that  distribution,  and  hence  offers  no 
directions  for  changing  it  if  it  is  unsatisfactory.  These  results  are 
the  first  step,  however,  in  a  diagnosis.  But  to  say  that  the  city 
made  a  standing  .of  77.4  per  cent.,  does  not  tell  us  the  kind  of  chil- 
dren the  city  had  to  have  in  order  to  make  that,  nor  does  it  tell  us 
the  plan  used  in  making  it,  nor  the  amount  of  time  consumed. 

To  make  our  results  of  value,  therefore,  we  need  to  study  as 
fully  as  possible  into  the  conditions  under  which  such  results  have 
been  obtained,  for  any  investigation,  results  of  which  are  not  to  be 
made  use  of  in  school  practice  is  not  only  professionally  useless,  but 
vicious.  If  further  study  proves  these  results  to  be  superior,  then 
we  should  pursue  our  present  policy  with  respect  to  spelling,  with 
the  consciousness  that  we  have  only  to  refine  this  policy  and  develop 
skill  in  its  administration.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  our  results  prove 
to  be  inferior,  we  need  to  study  carefully  every  aspect  of  the  prob- 
lem in  order  to  determine  what  readjustments  are  necessary. 

To  this  end  the  results  have  been  studied  in  the  light  of  differ- 
ences in  age,  sex,  and  general  ability  as  judged  by  the  teacher,  and 
the  findings  are  briefly  presented  below. 

AGE,  GRADE,  AND  SPELLING  EFFICIENCY. 

The  school  practitioner  need  not  concern  himself  so  much  with 
the  psychological  significance  of  maturity  as  with  the  practical  effect 
of  maturity  upon  the  problems  and  the  output  of  the  school.  When 
a  class  or  grade  standing  is  presented  as  the  average  for  children 
varying  from  a  few  months  to  four  or  five  years  in  their  ages,  it  is 
important  that  we  should  be  able  first  of  all  to  state  what  effect  this 
wide  difference  in  age  has  had.  This  is  our  problem  here. 

Every  grade  group  in  Oakland  is  made  up  of  children  of  widely 
varying  ages,  and  this  is  only  a  little  less  true  of  half  grade  groups. 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  INDIVIDUAL  DIFFERENCES        !25 


CO 


bC 

C 


i 


00     2 


1-s 
o 


z 
•  o 


1 

S 


o 


*5 


ci 


CO 


CO 


c 


fee 


CQ 


lo 


00 


CO 


- 


CQ 


00 


Oo 


FQ 


00 


CD 


26 


OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 


TABLE  9. 
Age-Grade  Distribution  in  Per  Cents. 


RETARDED 


&RADE 


Over  /  yir 


NORML 


3  tfvs.    Over 


3A 


32, 


3B 


.3 


35",  7 


4-  A 


S'.l 


4B 


7.6- 


30.*+ 


5A 


5B 


.7 


7,7 


30.H- 


/o.o 


6A 


.0 


6,5- 


5" 


6B 


.2 


SVf 


32,2 


II  .7 


7A 


V-,7 


31  . 


J25-.7 


7B 


.7 


-2V./ 


3L 


8A 


.6 


22.  0 


57.3 


2.2.5- 


8B 


.V 


3,2.0 


21.1 


ALL 


0.3 


6.2 


28.6 


31,5 


20.0 


9.1 


4.3 


For  convenience  the  age  grade  distribution  of  the  children  included 
in  the  test — 2nd  grade  excepted — is  presented  in  table  8,  reduced  to 
per  cents,  in  table  9  and  shown  graphically  in  diagram  7.  It  will 
be  seen  that  the  amount  of  retardation  is  high,  ranging  from  above 
54  per  cent,  in  grade  3A,  to  above  70  per  cent,  in  grade  8B,  and 
amounting  to  64.9  per  cent,  for  the  six  grades  studied.  This  means 
that  retardation  for  the  elementary  schools  in  the  city  is  at  least 
GO  per  cent.,  if  first  and  second  grades  were  counted. 

The  amount  of  retardation  for  each  child  is  shown  in  table  8, 
and  by  per  cents,  in  table  9,  from  which  it  appears  that  from  28  to 
37  per  cent,  of  the  children  are  retarded  one  year,  that  from  12  to 
27  per  cent,  are  retarded  two  years,  that  from  5  to  12  per  cent,  are 
retarded  three  years,  and  that  from  2  to  6  per  cent,  are  retarded 
four  years  or  more. 

An  examination  of  the  accelerates  shows  that  from  4  to  near  S 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  INDIVIDUAL  DIFFERENCES        27 


per  cent,  are  one  year  ahead  of  their  grades,  while  very  few  are  more 
than  one  year  ahead.  It  is  interesting  to  note  that  the  amount  of 
retardation  increases  gradually  from  the  low  3rd  to  the  high  8th 
grade. 

A  comparison  of  the  average  standings  of  these  three  groups  by 
grades  will  show  roughly  the  influence  of  age  upon  the  results  ob- 
tained. These  facts  are  given  in  detail  in  table  10,  and  shown 
graphically  in  diagram  8.  The  left  hand  column  in  this  diagram 
represents  the  average  standing  for  the  accelerates,  the  middle 


28 


OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

TABLE  10. 
Age  Groups  and  Spelling  Ability  by  Grades. 


GffADf 

STA/VD/WSS     BX      GROUPS 

• 

Atcefevates 

/\/O"rma  ^s 

fte^av^S 

8  B 

£7,7 

?y.o 

7&  .3' 

8  A 

??.  ^ 

73  .7 

d6!  ,7 

78 

?¥  .^ 

$7.3 

?OJ 

7  A 

g'jr.s 

8-2  .  I 

7  l>,0 

6  B 

^^7  ,f 

?£-.<? 

So.  *+ 

G  A 

rv5",y 

?£.  (* 

7  b  .7 

5-  B 

f^VZ 

<?  1  .¥ 

?2,'3 

5-  A 

<?  3  <H- 

&7.O 

7F.7 

A-  B 

$  H-,? 

&0.3 

7(o,  *f- 

4  X\ 

7<7.  1 

7t><¥ 

71.  / 

3  B 

7  ?.  7 

77  .1 

71,  (* 

3  A 

^  5-  P 

b3.y 

&£~,% 

column  for  the  normals,  and  the  right  hand  column  for  the  retards. 
Note  that  in  every  case  save  one,  grade  7B,  the  accelerates  rank 
clearly  above  all  others,  and  that  in  every  case  the  retards  rank 
lower  than  all  others. 

This  comes  out  with  remarkable  clearness  when  one  examines  a 
given  age  group  throughout  the  city.  This  has  been  done  for 
three  age  groups;  first,  those  13  to  13^2  years  old;  second,  those 
I2y2  to  13  years  old ;  and  third,  those  10  to  10 J^  years  old.  All  the 
children  13  to  13^2  years  old  were  separated  from  their  respective 
grade  groups,  and  the  average  standings  for  these  children  were 
computed  by  grades.  The  other  two  age  groups  were  treated  sim- 
ilarly. There  are  children  of  each  of  the  first  two  age  groups  to 
be  found  in  all  grades,  3A  to  8B,  while  the  10  to  10^  year  olds  are 
found  in  grades  3 A  to  6 A.  Table  11  shows  the  standings  by  grades 
for  each  of  these  three  age  groups  in  comparison  with  the  average 
for  the  grade  from  which  they  are  drawn. 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  INDIVIDUAL  DIFFERENCES        29 


30 


OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 


TABLE  11. 

Showing,  by  Grades,  the  Standings  of  Three  Age  Groups  as  Compared  With 
the  Averages  for  the  Grades  from  Which  They  Were   Drawn. 


GRADE 


8B 
8/1 

IB 
7A 
66 
6A 
58 


48 
30 


FOR 


77.? 
73.2, 

<x2.a. 
78.7 


73.  S- 
S1.1 


AGE   OF    CH/LOf?E/V 


13  *>/  3* 


17.7 


5Y.6 


¥%* 


7/ 


.  a/ 


tOtol  0% 


$1.0 


The  distribution  of  13-year-old  children  throughout  all  grades 
is  striking  evidence  that  chronological  age  means  almost  nothing  in 
school  organization.  We  discover  that  the  children  of  a  given  age 
represent  very  wide  differences  in  ability.  Circles  were  drawn  about 
the  ligures  in  the  table  which  represent  the  scores  of  the  normal 
children.  Figures  above  these  circles  are  the  scores  of  the  children 
who  are  accelerated,  and  those  below  the  circles  are  for  the  children 
who  are  retarded. 

A  brief  study  of  this  table  reveals  the  fact,  that  what  appears  in 
general,  as  shown  by  diagram  8,  appears  in  particular  for  a  given 
age  group,  viz.,  that  the  accelerated  13  to  13^  year  olds  rank  above 
the  average  for  their  grades,  that  the  normal  13  to  13^2  year  olds 
rank  above  the  average  for  their  grades,  and  that  the  retarded  13  to 
13^  year  olds  (6  months  retards  excepted)  rank  below  the  average 
for  their  grades,  and  increasingly  so  as  they  are  more  and  more 
retarded.  A  comparison  of  each  of  the  other  age  columns  in  table 
11  with  the  "Average  for  Grade"  column  shows  the  result  to  be  ex- 
actly the  same.  That  is,  the  difference  between  13  to  13^  year  old 
children  is  much  greater  than  the  mere  difference  between  grades 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  INDIVIDUAL  DIFFERENCES        31 

3 A  and  8B,  that  is,  5  years,  for  while  the  13  to  13^  year  olds  in  8B 
stand  3.9  per  cent,  higher  than  their  grade,  the  13  to  13J/2  year 
olds  from  grade  3 A  rank  28.1  per  cent  below  the  average  for  their 
grade. 

These  things  have  been  known  to  be  true  before,  but  here  is 
exactly  how  true  they  are  in  Oakland,  when  examined  from  one 
single  point  of  view  in  the  curriculum.  In  making  this  general 
average  for  the  city  as  a  whole,  and  for  the  upper  grades,  Oakland 
has  used  children  approximately  a  year  older  than  should  normally 
be  used  for  these  tests.  The  differences  in  age,  amounting  to  from 
6  to  8  years,  which  aopear  in  every  grade  group,  cannot  be  fully 
avoided,  even  under  ideal  conditions,  but  a  better  arrangement  than 
the  present  would  be  to  make  the  one  year  retards  the  normal  grcnp, 
calling  the  present  normals  one  year  accelerated,  etc.  See  dia- 
gram 7. 

If  the  fifth  grade  children  who  made  100  per  cent,  in  the  test 
had  taken  the  sixth  grade  test  instead  of  that  for  the  fifth  grade,  it 
is  probable  that  many  of  those  100's  would  have  been  reduced  to 
90, s,  a  few  to  80's  and,  a  very  few  to  70's.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that 
the  accelerates  have  lifted  the  general  average  for  the  city  very 
decidedly,  yet  the  same  is  true  of  the  normals,  and  also  of  those 
only  one  or  two  years  retarded,  as  may  be  seen  from  a  study  of 
table  11.  Again,  if  all  the  13  to  13^  year  olds  in  table  11  had 
taken  a  test  one  grade  higher  than  they  did,  it  is  fair  to  assume  that 
all  the  figures  in  that  column  of  the  table  would  have  been  lower 
than  they  now  are.  Just  how  much  lower  we  cannot  say,  but  the 
three  averages  in  that  column  of  the  table  which  fall  below  70% 
include  but  41  of  the  874  children  included  in  the  "13  to  13^  year 
olds"  column.  Which  means  that  they  might  have  been  reduced 
quite  decidedly  without  making  the  general  average  for  children  of 
that  age  lower  than  70%,  which  is  the  desired  standard. 

So,  while  it  is  true  that  it  is  the  average  child  who  has  held 
down  the  .general"  averages  everywhere,  yet  they  have  not  held  it 
below  the  70%  mark.  The  only  conclusion  is  that  Oakland  would 
have  made  an  average  of  approximately  70%  in  the  4th,  5th,  6th, 
7th,  and  8th  grades  even  if  each  of  these  grades  had  taken  the  test 
for  the  next  grade  above.  This  would  not  have  been  true  for 
grades  2  and  3. 

Such  facts  as  these  are  at  the  basis  of  administrative  as  well  as 
teaching  difficulties.  First,  from  diagram  8,  and  tables  10  and  11,  we 
note  that  in  practically  every  case  the  accelerated  child  is  ahead  of 
his  grade.  This  means  that  he  is  not  having  to  work  very  hard  to 
make  a  respectable  showing.  Exactly  the  reverse  is  true  of  the 
retarded  child,  and  the  more  he  is  retarded  the  more  true  it  is.  If 
an  intelligence  test  were  applied  to  our  13  to  13^  year  olds,  who 
by  an  age  grade  measure  are  accelerated,  it  is  quite  reasonable  to 
suppose  that  in  terms  of  their  psychological  ages  they  are  actually 


OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

retarded.  And  this  simply  because  they  have  not  had  to  work  up 
to  their  full  capacity.  The  opposite  of  this  would  likely  be  shown 
for  the  retards.  This  problem  is  being  studied  diligently,  and  in 
time  we  shall  know  the  extent  to  which  such  facts  exist.  Meantime, 
by  use  of  special  rooms,  for  bright  pupils  as  well  as  for  dull  ones, 
irregular  promotions,  and  assistant  teachers,  the  school  machinery 
should  make  provision  for  teaching  the  bright  children  to  work 
hard.  To  the  teacher  the  demand  is  clear.  She  should  be  fully 
conscious,  not  only  that  this  state  of  affairs  exists  in  her  room,  but 
of  the  way  in  which  these  differences  manifest  themselves,  and  of 
the  extent  to  which  they  exist  as  well.  In  her  assignments  she 
should  plan  to  use  up  systematically  that  time  which  accelerates 
usually  trifle  away.  Table  11  suggests  strongly  that  there  are  quite 
a  number  of  pupils  in  regular  classes  who  ought,  both  for  their 
own  sakes  and  for  the  sake  of  other  children,  to  be  dealt  with  in 
rooms  for  subnormals. 

The  amount  of  retardation  for  the  city  is  too  high.  It  carries 
no  advantage  whatever,  but  tends  to  discourage  and  depress.  The 
year's  work  in  spelling  should  be  made  reasonably  difficult,  but  there 
is  no  reason  for  making  it  so  difficult  that  only  one  child  in  three 
can  complete  it  in  the  given  time.  It  should  be  said,  however,  that 
the  general  results  of  this  test  do  not  seem  to  indicate  that  spelling 
is  the  cause  of  a  very  large  per  cent,  of  retardation.  Which  may 
suggest  that  spelling  is  receiving  proportionately  more  than  its  share 
of  time,  for  further  discussion  of  which  see  chapter  V. 

SEX  AND  SPELLING  EFFICIENCY. 

No  one  has  yet  argued,  from  a  wide  knowledge  of  facts,  that  sex 
differences  show  themselves  so  prominently  in  intellectual  work  as 
to  demand  that  girls  and  boys  be  taught  separately.  This  part  of 
the  study  was  undertaken  with  a  view  to  being  able  to  state  quan- 
titatively, what  practical  effect  sex  differences  might  have  in  a  test 
of  this  sort,  and  to  gain  from  the  showing  any  suggestion  it  might 
have  for  the  teacher  and  supervisor  of  spelling. 

The  general  findings  are  presented  by  grades  in  table  12  and  in 
diagram  9,  from  which  it  appears  that  there  is  a  clear  difference  in 
favor  of  the  girls,  that  the  difference  is  constant,  and  that  it  roughly 
increases  with  age.  (Since  so  large  a  number  of  children  are  in- 
cluded, it  may  be  of  psychological  interest  that  the  increase  in  dif- 
ference is  not  more  regular  than  it  is.)  These  same  facts  are  pre- 
sented for  each  grade  separately  by  schools  in  diagram  10,  which 
shows  that  grade  groups  vary  in  different  schools,  but  that  even 
when  the  boys  are  ahead  they  are  rarely  very  far  ahead.  The  fact 
that  the  difference  is  more  pronounced  in  the  upper  grades  is  also 
clear.  That  the  differences  are  much  greater  in  individual  schools 
than  when  the  average  is  taken  is  to  be  expected. 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  INDIVIDUAL  DIFFERENCES 

TABLE  12. 
Grade  Averages  by  Sexes. 


33 


SEX 

GRADE 

8 

7 

6 

5 

4 

3 

2 

B  Otf  S 

7;U 

77.0 

78.V 

$/.<? 

fj  y/  <p 

£#<? 

oT<7.2 

Gir/s 

7£3 

$2* 

$0.¥ 

$6~¥ 

/  c>.  «? 

^^,6^ 

^/.? 

G.Y/S'  S^er.  ov.tij 

s.j 

&v 

4.0 

&sr 

/^ 

3.6 

^,7 

Just  what  this  means  for  the  teaching  of  spelling,  in  detail,  may 
call  for  a  careful  study  of  these  scores  in  relation  to  the  relative  ages 
of  boys  and  girls,  and  also  of  the  relative  variability  of  standings 
for  boys  as  compared  with  that  for  girls.  For  the  purposes  of  this 

DIAGRAM  9. 
Relative  Standing  of  Boys  and  Girls  by  Grades  in  Forty  Schools. 


r 


/rt? 
f^ 
fo 
la 
to 
So 

30 

Zc 

to 

0 


fiirts 


34  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

DIAGRAM  10. 

Comparative  Standings  of  Boys  and  Girls  in  Each  Grade 
by  Schools. 

GRADE  YIII-IZ95  CHILDREN 


~"         ^     GRADE    OIL- 2495 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  INDIVIDUAL  DIFFERENCES        35 

study  that  would  only  mean  to  state  the  above  findings  in  more 
specific  terms.  The  fact  is  there  are  real  differences,  pronounced 
differences,  in  many  classes.  Whether  it  means  that  the  mental 
maturity  of  girls  is  in  general  more  rapid  during  the  elementary 
school  period  than  that  for  boys,  or  that  girls  have  a  better  verbal 
memory  than  boys,  or  that  girls  are  more  industrious  with  respect 
to  such  formal  tasks  as  the  study  of  spelling  lessons,  or,  as  various 
studies  seem  to  indicate,  that  it*  is  all  of  these,  we  need  not  say. 
The  differences  are  not  great  enough  to  necessitate  a  division  of 
sexes  for  the  teaching  of  spelling,  though  there  are  several  cases  in 
which  the  teaching  of  the  subject  would  be  facilitated  by  such  di- 
vision. This  would  involve  administrative  difficulties,  however, 
which  would  forbid  its  recommendation.  But  to  the  teacher  it  be- 
comes a  definite  problem.  The  girls  possess  extra  ability  which  she 
can  depend  upon,  and  it  is  her  duty  to  see  that  it  is  made  use  of,  and 
not  permitted  to  furnish  the  girls  with  leisure  time  for  which  they 
need  give  no  educational  account.  The  extent  and  persistence  of 
this  difference  in  abilities  due  to  sex,  indicates  that  girls  ought  to  be 
expected  to  complete  the  eight  years  work  in  spelling  in  seven  years. 
If  their  full  ability  were  used  up  to  its  limit,  systematically,  and  if 
there  were  any  real  end  to  the  course  in  spelling,  there  is  little  doubt 
but  that  on  an  average,  girls  would  do  in  six  years  the  spelling  work 
which  boys  do  in  seven  years.  If  girls  are  mentally  more  mature, 
then  they  should  not  be  prevented  the  opportunity  of  making  that 
maturity  count.  A  girl,  or  a  boy  either,  who  is  not  forming  good 
work  habits,  is  not  just  waiting,  but  is  reallv  forming  the  habit  of 
drifting,  being  generally  unbusinesslike  with  respect  to  the  thing 
that  is  his  or  her  serious  business.  Real  supervision  can  do  no 
greater  service  than  to  help  teachers  realize  in  these  ways  just  what 
such  individual  differences  mean,  and  to  help  teachers  in  finding  out 
systematic  ways  of  teaching  each  child  to  use  his  or  her  whole 
ability,  at  all  times,  spelling  lessons  not  excepted. 

The  inquiry  here  is  into  the  mere  fact  of  differences  in  spelling 
efficiency  between  the  sexes,  and  not  into  the  ways  by  which  either 
sex  learns  to  spell.  Only  on  the  basis  of  such  a  study  as  the  latter 
could  we  base  recommendations  as  to  modification  of  teaching  meth- 
ods to  meet  sex  differences.  Such  differences  doubtless  exist.  Su- 
perior ability  probably  means  not  only  a  larger  mental  content,  or  a 
greater  amount  of  knowledge,  but  also  superior  method*  for  getting 
knowledge.  Teachers  have  neither  time  nor  facilities  for  a  scien- 
tific study  of  this  question  in  their  classrooms,  but  by  close  observa- 
tion of  how  boys  and  girls  work  at  such  tasks,  teachers  will  both 
incr^.ce  their  sympathy  for  their  individual  pupils,  and  add  greatly 
to  their  knowledge  of  the  individual  pupil's  learning  problem,  and 
hence  to  their  own  teaching  efficiency. 


36  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 


GENERAL  ABILITY  IN  SCHOOL  WORK  AS  JUDGED  BY  THE  TEACHER, 
AND  SPELLING  EFFICIENCY. 

According  to  the  plan  described  on  page  1  the  five  brightest 
pupils  and  the  five  slowest  pupils  from  each  class  (best  and  slowest 
in  general  school  work,  according  to  the  teacher's  judgment)  were 
numbered  so  that  their  records  could  be  studied  separately. 

The  teacher's  judgment  is  not  presumed  to  be  a  perfect  measure 
of  general  intelligence,  but  it  is  the  one  most  often  used  in  practical 
school  work.  The  questions  here,  are:  1st,  are  spelling  ability 
and  general  ability  parallel ;  2nd,  if  the  teacher  has  chosen  the  best 
and  poorest  spellers  how  widely  do  they  differ  in  rank? 

First  of  all,  the  standings  for  the  five  brightest  pupils  in  a  class 
were  averaged,  then  the  average  for  the  five  poorest  pupils  was  sim- 
ilarly ascertained,  and  these  were  compared  with  the  average  stand- 
ings of  the  class  from  which  they  were  drawn.  Each  class  in  the 
school  was  treated  in  this  way,  and  the  results  set  down  in  three 
columns,  the  first  for  the  average  of  the  five  brightest  pupils,  the 
second  for  the  class  average,  and  the  third  for  the  average  of  the 
five  poorest  pupils. 

The  number  of  classes  so  treated  was  377.  Out  of  this  number 
343  classes  showed  that  the  five  brightest,  averaged  above  the  class 
standing,  while  in  34  cases  it  either  equaled  or  fell  below  it.  Sim- 
ilarly from  the  377  classes,  the  averages  for  the  five  slowest  pupils 
fell  below  the  class  average  322  times,  and  equaled  or  ranked  above 
it  55  times. 

It  is  by  no  means  true  that  the  five  brightest  were  always  the 
five  best  spellers  (judged  by  the  test),  but  the  above  figures  show 
that  the  bright  group  almost  always  averaged  high,  and  that  the  dull 
groups  most  always  averaged  low.  For  instance,  in  school  No.  1 
there  were  eleven  classes,  in  ten  of  which  the  five  brightest  pupils 
ranked  above,  and  the  five  slowest  pupils  ranked  below  the  average 
for  the  class.  The  bright  groups  averaged  from  zero  to  19% 
above,  and  the  slow  groups  ranked  from  zero  to  36%  below  their 
class  averages.  The  average  for  the  eleven  bright  groups  together 
was  9.8%.  above,  and  for  the  eleven  dull  groups  12.5%  below  their 
class  averages.  These  same  figures  for  other  schools  ranged  from 
an  average 'of  3%  to  14.7%  above  class  averages  for  the  bright 
groups,  and  from  an  average  of  from  1.6%  above  to  24.8%below 
class  averages  for  the  dull  groups. 

This  is  brought  out  clearly  by  taking  all  the  bright  pupil  groups 
from  a  school,  computing  their  average,  then  treating  the  slow 
pupil  groups  in  the  same  way,  compare  these  with  the  school  aver- 
age. For  instance  in  school  No.  1  there  are  eleven  classes.  That 
means  we  have  55  bright  pupils  and  55  slow  ones  to  compare  with 
the  school  average.  The  bright  55  make  an  average  standing  of 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  INDIVIDUAL  DIFFERENCES        37 


38  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

90.7%,  the  slow  55  average  67.6%,  and  the  school  average  is  80.8%. 
That  is,  the  bright  55  average  9.9%  above,  and  the  slow  55  average 
13.2%.  below  the  school  average.  The  showing  for  each  of  the  40 
schools  has  been  worked  out  in  this  way,  and  appears  by  schools  in 
diagram  11. 

This  diagram  shows  that  general  ability  has  uniformly  corre- 
sponded with  spelling  ability,  and  it  shows,  too,  that  the  statement 
made  in  chapter  2,  that  there  is  a  wide  range  of  ability  in  almost 
every  class,  is  easily  true. 

SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIONS. 

We  have  examined  the  influence  of  three  types  of  individual  dif- 
ferences, namely,  age,  sex,  and  general  ability,  upon  spelling  effi- 
ciency, and  have  found  that  each  has  a  constant  and  well  defined 
significance  which  ought  to  be  reckoned  with  in  the  teaching,  super- 
vision, and  administration  of  spelling. 

Incidentally  we  find  that  retardation  is  very  high  in  the  schools, 
gradually  increasing  in  amounts  by  half  grades  from  3 A  to  8B. 

We  have  seen  that  chronological  age  gives  very  little  indication 
of  the  grade  of  mental  ability,  since  every  grade  group  contains  chil- 
dren as  much  as  eight  years  apart  in  ages. 

In  practically  every  case,  the  older  a  child  is  in  a  given  grade 
with  respect  to  the  normal  age  for  that  grade,  the  poorer  he  spells. 
This  is  clearly  emphasized  by  the  study  of  three  separate  age  groups. 

This  is  simply  a  quantitative  statement  of  the  influence  of  the 
bright  and  of  the  dull  child  upon  the  work  in  a  given  course.  The 
children  from  13  to  13^  years  old  in  Oakland  are  scattered  through- 
out all  the  grades,  and  those  in  the  8B  grade  pass  the  8B  test  with 
higher  rank  than  those  in  the  3  A  grade  are  able  to  make  in  the  3 A 
test.  That  is,  the  mental  age  range  here  is  not  from  13  to  13^ 
years,  but  really  from  about  7  to  14.  (The  Binet  tests  are  showing 
that  the  range  is  actually  even  wider  than  this). 

And  this  is  not  all,  for  the  badly  retarded  child  is  a  definite  prob- 
lem wherever  he  appears.  It  is  not  that  he  is  in  a  low  grade,  but 
that  he  moves,  wherever  he  is,  at  a  slow  rate  of  speed.  He  is  a 
definite  drag  on  his  class. 

On  the  other  hand  the  accelerated  child  has  a  high  rate  of  speed, 
which  shows  in  his  standing  in  the  test.  These  differences  are  wide 
enough  in  every  half  grade  group  to  constitute  a  definite  problem. 
Without  going  into  a  class  room  one  may  say  confidently  that  bright 
children  are  being  hampered  by  the  dragging  effect  of  having  to  see 
children  much  older  than  themselves  apply  stupid  learning  method 
slowly.  The  accelerate's  quick  intellect  may  stimulate  the  retard 
if  the  difference  is  not  so  great  as  to  discourage  him,  but  influence  in 
the  opposite  direction  should  be  considered.  The  differences  shown 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  INDIVIDUAL  DIFFERENCES        39 

in  our  diagram  are  sometimes  as  great  as  20%  and  these  are  aver- 
ages. 

The  showing  clearly  warrants  the  suggestion  that  special  rooms 
for  bright  and  for  dull  pupils  in  the  schools  are  not  yet  serving  their 
fullest  usefulness  so  far  as  spelling  is  concerned.  A  "Spelling  Hos- 
pital" is  a  genuine  need,  not  only  to  give  extra  direction  (not  test- 
ing but  teaching)  to  the  slow  children,  but  to  take  such  influences 
away  from  bright  pupils,  and  to  make  it  possible  to  work  the  bright 
pupils  up  to  a  reasonable  limit  of  their  capacities. 

Special  assistant  teachers  may  be  used  effectively  also  in  this 
connection,  likewise  irregular  promotions. 

Above  all,  through  careful  supervision,  every  teacher  should  be 
made  fully  conscious  of  the  fact  that  these  differences  exist  in  her 
class.  She.  should  be  given  assistance  in  finding  out  the  extent  to 
which  they  exist,  and  be  held  responsible  for  knowing  just  how 
these  differences  manifest  themselves  in  respect  to  the  amount  of 
knowledge  the  child  possesses,  in  respect  to  his  methods  of  study, 
and  in  respect  to  the  interest  which  he  has  in  his  work. 

It  is  the  teacher's  business  to  see  that  children  are  working  up 
to  the  limit  of  their  capacities,  and  not  allowed  to  dawdle  and  wait 
for  a  dull  or  stupid  classmate  to  catch  up.  This  requires  knowledge 
of  individuals  such  as  that  suggested  by  these  studies.  The  setting 
forth  of  the  general  features  of  such  problems,  and  direction  in  how 
to  solve  them,  are  legitimate  functions  of  the  supervisor;  the  con- 
stant watch  to  see  that  these  ends  are  being  met  by  teachers,  is  a  le- 
gitimate function  of  the  principal.  Such  assistance  should  be  wel- 
comed, even  sought  after,  by  the  teacher.  The  results  of  such  co- 
operation will  certainly  place  in  clear  light  any  new  demands  which 
problems  of  individual  differences  may  make  upon  matters  of  or- 
ganization and  management. 

In  respect  to  sex  differences,  we  note  that  they  are  definite  and 
constant  in  their  showing  on  the  test.  They  roughly  increase  in 
significance  from  year  to  year,  but  with  some  irregularity,  being 
least  in  grade  4  and  greatest  in  grade  8. 

In  amount  these  differences  range  from  1.8%  to  5.7%  by  grade 
groups  throughout  the  city ;  but  when  grade  groups  in  single  schools 
are  studied,  we  find* these  differences  quite  variable,  often  going  as 
low  as  zero,  not  infrequently  with  the  boys  slightly  ahead,  and  often 
as  high  as  10%  in  favor  of  the  girls. 

These  differences  between  boys  and  girls  are  very  genuine, 
though  in  most  cases  not  so  wide  as  to  prevent  their  being  handled 
in  classes  together.  The  main  suggestion  which  these  facts  have 
for  the  conduct  of  the  schools,  is,  that  if  girls  mature  more  rapidly 
than  boys,  they  should  be  provided  with  the  chance  to  get  through 
the  elementary  school  at  an  earlier  age.  The  amount  of  difference 
which  appears  and  the  way  in  which  it  persists,  suggests  that  the 


40  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

girls  should,  on  the  average,  finish  the  elementary  school  work  in 
spelling,  certainly  a  half  year,  if  not  a  year  sooner  than  the  boys  can 
finish  it. 

It  is  not  a  case  demanding  rearrangement  of  school  machinery, 
so  much  as  it  is  one  which  demands  attention  to  those  more  minute 
adjustments  which  the  elasticity  of  the  present  machinery  provides 
for,  and  which  the  teacher,  supervisor,  and  principal,  are  respon- 
sible for  effecting.  Such  educational  capital  as  exists  in  these  indi- 
vidual differences  must  not  remain  uninvested.  They  are  the  sav- 
ings accounts  in  school  training  which  we  ought  to  start  early,  for, 
however  small,  they  are  dependable. 

Our  third  trait,  general  intelligence,  brought  to  light  further 
evidence  that  very  wide  differences  in  ability  exist  between  members 
of  the  same  class,  that  the  teacher  seldom  had  difficulty  in  nam- 
ing the  brightest  and  dullest  children  in  her  room,  and  that  spelling 
ability  corresponded  quite  fully  with  this  general  ability. 

These  differences  are  often  wider  than  one  would  reasonably 
expect  between  children  a  grade  apart,  and  emphasize  the  fact  that 
an  assignment  of  work  to  such  a  class  cannot  avoid  doing  injustice 
to  some  of  the  members,  either  by  making  the  lesson  too  easy  or 
too  difficult.  Likewise  the  recitation  period  must  waste  time  for 
some,  permitting  them  to  form  slovenly  habits  of  inattention,  while 
others  are  struggling  in  the  dark,  more  or  less  in  a  vain  effort  to 
comprehend.  Such  classes  can  be  tested,  but  not  taught.  The 
effect  of  such  conditions  on  the  teacher  has  been  pointed  out  above. 

Finally,  then,  the  demand  for  "economy  of  time  in  the  elementary 
school"  can  be  effectively  met  by  perfecting  organization,  and  re- 
fining those  inner  and  more  minute  adjustments  for  which  teacher 
and  supervisor  are  responsible,  all  in  the  light  of  the  definite  claims 
of  individual  differences  which  this  test  has  brought  to  light,  and 
stated  in  quantitative  terms. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  SOCIAL  DIFFERENCES. 
THE  NATURE  OF  THE  PROBLEM. 

The  group  of  influences  studied  here  are  those  produced  by  the 
child's  contacts,  through  institutions,  occupations,  and  race  connec- 
tions, with  the  world  outside.  The  purpose  being  to  discover  what, 
if  any,  are  the  differences  in  children  for  which  such  forces  are  re- 
sponsible, assuming  that  any  such  differences,  which  would  be  of 
importance  to  the  school,  might  manifest  themselves  to  some  de- 
gree in  such  a  test  as  this. 

It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  original  endowment,  or  human  nature, 
is  extremely  variable,  and  that  it  accounts  for  many  of  the  important 
differences  we  find  among  school  children.  But  we  must  keep  in 
mind  that  it  is  just  this  original  nature  that  education  is  trying  to 
change,  and  that  whatever  plays  a  part  in  the  stimulation  and  direc- 
tion of  these  native  tendencies,  is  producing  change  in  them,  that  is, 
educating  the  child.  The  school  is  but  one  of  the  many  forces  which 
are  constantly  playing  upon  child  nature,  and  the  school  is  presumed 
to  represent  systematized  effort  to  produce  certain  well  defined,  and 
desirable  changes.  It  is  such  only  in  proportion  to  the  extent  to 
which  it  corrects,  supplements,  and  extends  the  influences  of  that 
larger  school,  life.  The  school  must,  in  other  words,  have  per- 
spective for  its  work.  It  must  know  that  it  stands  beside  the  home, 
the  church,  the  street,  occupation,  social  activities,  and  ancestral  in- 
fluences—which are  quite  as  much  social  as  biological, — and  formu- 
late its  procedure  in  terms,  not  only  of  original  human  nature,  but 
also  in  terms  of  both  the  shortcomings  and  the  sound  influences  of 
these  other  agencies. 

Only  by  taking  full  stock  of  the  work  being  done  by  these  vari- 
ous outside  influences,  therefore,  can  the  school  shape  the  details  of 
its  own  tasks  intelligently. 

To  the  end  that  some  little  light  might  be  thrown  upon  such  in- 
fluences, the  results  of  the  test  were  studied  from  the  standpoint  of 
the  father's  occupation,  the  occupation  the  child  desires  to  enter 
when  he  leaves  school,  the  father's  nationality,  and  the  home  lan- 
guage. Only  records  of  selected  groups,  and  not  of  all  the  children 
in  the  city  were  used  in  these  studies. 

FATHER'S  OCCUPATION  AND  SPELLING  EFFICIENCY. 

For  this  study  2644  children  from  13  schools,  and  from  grades 
2  to  8  inclusive  were  chosen.  Not  less  than  200  nor  more  than  400 
records  were  chosen  from  any  one  grade,  and  classes  were  taken 
from  the  largest  as  well  as  from  the  smallest  schools,  and  from 
schools  in  all  sections  of  the  city.  The  group  is  a  random  selection 
therefore,  and  representative  of  what  a  larger  number  would  show. 


42 


OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 


The  occupations  of  these  2644  fathers,  representing  73  different 
callings,  have  been  thrown  into  groups  as  shown  by  the  left  hand 
column  of  Table  13.  This  grouping  was  used  because  it  seems  to 
divide  people  roughly  along  social  lines,  which  are  likely  the  result 
as  well  as  the  cause  of  their  being  in  this  or  that  occupation.  The 
home  of  a  professional  man  represents,  on  the  whole,  a  higher 
standard  of  living  than  that  of  the  clerk  or  labor  group,  and  some- 
what different  from,  if  not  higher  than  any  of  the  other  groups. 

The  number  belonging  to  each  of  these  groups  of  occupations  is 
indicated  in  the  right  hand  column  of  Table  13,  which  table  repre- 
sents the  complete  distribution  of  the  standings  of  the  children  of 
these  fathers.  Each  of  the  groups  is  large  enough  to  constitute  a 
'fair  sample  of  the  Oakland  school  population. 

The  test  averages  for  the  different  groups  vary  from  72.3%  for 


TABLE  13. 

Showing  the  Distribution  of  Standings  of  2644  Children  by 
Occupational  or  Social  Groups. 


Occupations 

Standings 

Ave. 

No. 
In- 
clud- 

100| 90 

80 

70 

60  |  50 

40 

30 

20     10  |   0 

ed 

Professions    

70 
111 
20 
132 
15 
80 
86 

63 
119 

22 
143 
17 

78 
110 

71 
105 
18 
122 
13 
75 
116 

36 
101 
10 

82 
10 
38 
84 

19 
61 
8 
54 
11 
31 
46 

24 
52 
4 
30 
8 
25 
42 

14 
34 
4 
23 
6 
11 
23 

4 
18 
2 
15 
4 
5 
20 

2 
14 
0 
15 
0 
4 
14 

0 
8 
0 
2 
0 
2 
12 

0 
8 
0 
4 
0 
0 
8 

75.7 
72.6 
79.8 
77.2 
7.37 
78.7 
72.3 

303 
631 
88 
622 
84 
349 
567 

Skilled  Labor  and 
Artisans 

Officials  

Business 

Agriculture 

Clerks 

Labor 

the  labor  group  to  79.8%  for  children  of  public  officials,  which  is  a 
difference  of  7.5%.  It  is  noticeable .  that  children  of  skilled  work- 
men spell  little  better  than  do  the  children  of  unskilled  workmen, 
that  children  of  clerks  spell  better  than  children  of  either  profes- 
sional or  business  men,  and  that  children  whose  fathers  are  public 
officials  (including  policemen)  spell  better  than  all  others,  when 
judged  by  averages. 

In  Diagram  12  the  standings  of  the  children  are  distributed  by 
groups  in  terms  of  the  percentage  of  children  receiving  a  given  rank. 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  SOCIAL  DIFFERENCES 
%  oot- 


43 


°?     . 

C<1      cc 

•  I 
I! 

~  O 

a  11 

oil 


I 

II 


01 


The  full  length  of  each  bar  represents  100%  of  the  children  of  the 
group,  each  separate  division  of  the  bar  representing  the  per  cent, 
of  the  group  receiving  a  given  score.  By  reference  to  the  scale  at 
the  top,  and  to  the  explanation,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  of  those  re- 


44  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

ceiving  100%  standing,  the  professional  group  ranks  highest,  and 
the  labor  group  lowest;  of  those  receiving  90%  or  above,  the  officials 
group  stands  first,  and  the  professional  group  fourth,  with  labor 
lowest.  Examinations  of  the  other  sections  of  the  diagram  places 
the  children  of  officials  clearly  ahead,  with  the  professional  group 
second,  the  clerks  third,  and  business  fourth,  which  is  in  part  a 
different  order  than  when  the  groups  were  compared  by  averages. 

Whatever  other  factors  may  enter  into  the  determination  of  these 
standings,  such,  for  instance,  as  the  fact  that  the  labor  group  is 
heavily  weighted  with  ignorant  foreigners,  they  do  not  change  the 
practical  meaning  of  the  showing  in  the  least,  for  labor  is  so  weight- 
ed in  most  of  our  American  cities.  The  first  fact  is  that  there  are 
differences.  Before  the  school  undertakes  to  do  anything  about 
these  differences  it  must  know  why  they  exist.  If  the  reason  is 
something  the  school  cannot  control,  then  its  duty  is  to  try,  not  to 
remove  the  cause,  but  to  cure  the  ill.  The  foreigner  is  here,  and 
his  children  are  becoming  Americans.  The  laborer  is  one  of  our 
company,  and  though  his  children  may  be  on  the  average  of  lower 
mentality  than  children  from  the  professional  group,  we  must  ask 
does  the  school  know  for  sure  that  these  children  are  in  school  as 
many  days  in  the  year,  that  they  are  not  more  often  sick  or  physic- 
ally defective,  that  they  have  equal  school  opportunity  with  children 
from  other  groups,  and  that  they  are  equally  able  to  avail  them- 
selves of  those  opportunities?  It  is  this  end  of  the  situation  which 
the  school  can  study,  and,  to  a  large  extent,  control.  This  study  is 
further  evidence  that  economy  of  time  for  the  school  may  lie  in  the 
direction  of  economizing  the  time  and  school  privileges  for  individual 
children.  Variety  in  home  life  from  the  economic  standpoint  points 
to  another  set  of  individual  differences  which  school  machinery  and 
teaching  must  recognize. 

CHILDREN'S  OCCUPATIONAL  AMBITIONS  AND  SPELLING 
EFFICIENCY.1 

In  this  study  are  included  3079  children,  or  practically  all  the 
classes  in  grades  7  and  8  throughout  the  city.  The  question  here  is, 
first,  what  occupation  does  the  child  wish  to  enter,  and  second,  how 
well  can  he  spell,  or  is  there  any  apparent  correlation  between  the 
child's  spelling  ability  and  his  present  occupational  ambition  ? 

The  total  number  of  occupations  mentioned  by  the  children  in- 
cludes 93,  20  more  than  the  number  actually  followed  by  the  fathers 
of  the  2644  children  studied  above.  There  were  13  of  these  which 
were  mentioned  but  once  each,  and  these  include  butcher,  baker,  plas- 
terer, and  reporter.  On  the  other  hand  there  were  14  occupations, 
each  of  which  was  chosen  by  50  or  more  children.  A  study  of  the 
occupational  choices  of  these  children  is  itself  an  interesting  ques- 

l Sears.  J.  B. — Occupations  of  Fathers,  and  Occupational  Choices  of  1039  Boys 
in  Grades  Seven  and  Eight  of  the  Oakland  Schools.  School  and  Society,  May  22,  1915. 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  SOCIAL  DIFFERENCES  45 

DIAGRAM  13. 

Distribution  of  7th  and  8th  Grade  Children  With  Respect  to 
Their  Choice  of  Occupations.     3079  in  All. 


tion,  but  for  present  purposes  Diagram  13  shows  the  distribution  of 
their  choices  which  is  useful  in  this  connection.  One  cannot  help 
being  struck  with  the  fact  that — according  to  figures  in  the  above 
section  of  this  chapter, — out  of  2644  fathers  in  the  city,  less  than 
12%  are  engaged  in.  professions,  while  45.8%  of  these  3079  chil- 
dren desire  to  enter  professions.  Some  reconstruction  of  these  am- 
bitions is  ultimately  necessary,  and  the  school  should  not  shirk  its 
very  evident  responsibility  in  this  connection.  This  is  incidental, 
however,  to  the  question  of  what  relation  there  may  be  between 
these  wise  or  unwise  ambitions,  and  the  ability  of  the  children  to 
spell.  It  should  be  pointed  out  in  passing,  that  there  is  little  ten- 
dency for  the  son  to  select  the  pursuit  his  father  is  engaged  in,  con- 
sequently bookkeepers  here  are  by  no  means  the  sons  of  bookkeep- 
ers, engineers  are  not  mainly  the  sons  of  engineers,  etc.  Here  the 
ambitious  son  or  daughter  of  a  laborer  may,  and  very  often  does, 
appear  in  the  professional,  or  business  group,  and  vice  versa. 

From  the  above  diagram  it  may  be  seen  that  teaching  and  en- 
gineering rank  very  high  among  the  professions  chosen,  and  that 


46 


OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 


TABLE  14. 

Occupational  Distribution  of  the  7th  and  8th  Grade  Children  and 
Their  Standings  by  Groups. 


Occupation 

No.    Children 
Choosing 

Average  Standing 
of  Group 

Professions  : 
Teaching 

346 

80  2 

Kngineering      

362 

7o9 

Writers                            

17 

81  2 

Others 

684          1409 

78  0        78  3 

Business  : 
Business    service 

485 

79  3 

Others    

72           557 

76.1        78.9 

Trades 

318 

74  3 

Agriculture 

87 

71  5 

Labor  

30 

73  0 

Housewife 

38 

82  1 

No   choice 

598 

78  3 

Baseball  

24 

62  5 

Others    

18 

73.3 

Total.... 

3079 

77.7 

business  service,  by  which  is  meant  stenographers,  clerks,  book- 
keepers, etc.,  includes  most  of  the  business  group. 

The  number  of  children  choosing  these  different  lines,  and  the 
group  averages  they  make  in  the  test  are  shown  in  Table  14.  The 
average  for  all  is  77.7%.  For  the  professional  group  of  1409  chil- 
dren the  average  made  is  78.3%,  while  the  business  group  of  557 
made  78.9%.  Those  expressing  no  chioce  rank  even  with  the  pro- 
fessional group,  and  the  trades  group,  318  in  number,  drop  to  74.3%. 
The  small  group  of  38  who  wish  to  be  house  wives  ranks  above  all, 
making  82.1%,  while  the  two  dozen  who  wish  to  play  baseball  rank 
far  below,  with  an  average  of  62.5%. 

In  interpreting  these  figures  we  need  to  keep  in  mind  the  fact 
brought  out  by  Table  No.  12  above,  that  girls  in  grades  7  and  8 
spell  on  an  average  from  5.4%  to  5.7%  better  than  boys.  The 
group  of  teachers,  who  rank  high  are  largely  from  among  the  girls, 
and  so  the  engineer  group,  all  of  whom  are  boys,  cannot  be  counted 
specially  low  when  they  fall  3.3%  below  the  teachers.  They  are 
low,  however,  as  compared  with  the  professional  group  as  a  whole. 
A  more  interesting  comparison  of  groups  is  seen  in  the  following 
arrangement : 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  SOCIAL  DIFFERENCES  47 

Chosen  mainly  or  wholly  by  Chosen  mainly  or  wholly  by 

boys.  girls. 

Average  Average 

Engineers 76.9      Housewives  82.1 

Trades   74.3      Musicians 81.1 

Labor  73.0      Stenographers  80.5 

Agriculture   71.5      Teaching  80.2 

Base  Ball  62.5      Nurses  77.6 

Bookkeepers 77.8 

By  a  comparison  of  the  groups  on  the  left  with  those  on  the 
right,  we  find  that  sex  does  not  explain  all  the  differences.  For  in- 
stance the  difference  between  the  average  for  the  agriculture  group, 
and  any  group  on  the  right,  is  greater  than  the  normal  difference 
due  to  sex.  That  is,  agriculture  and  baseball  have  attracted  a 
much  lower  type  of  spelling  ability  than  that  attracted  by  music  or 
nursing. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  all  the  groups  on  the  left  rank  below 
the  lowest  group  on  the  right,  and  that  bookkeeping,  which  attracts 
both  boys  and  girls,  ranks  approximately  between  the  two.  Even 
if  sex  explained  these  differences,  which  it  does  not,  we  have  still 
to  consider  those  differences  which  exist  between  the  engineer  and 
baseball  groups,  or  between  the  housewife  and  nurse  groups. 
Clearly  baseball  does  not  attract  brains,  if  spelling  efficiency  meas- 
ures brains.  And  it  is  the  lower  intelligence  class  among  girls  who 
wish  to  enter  nursing,  while  music  and  motherhood  call  out  the  best 
minds  there  are  among  the  girls. 

So,  measuring  boys  against  boys,  or  girls  against  girls,  or  boys 
and  girls  against  each  other,  we  find  that  lines  which  divide  them 
with  respect  to  their  occupational  ambitions,  divide  them  also  with 
respect  to  their  spelling  efficiency.  It  may  not  be  that  low  spelling 
efficiency  causes  a  boy  to  wish  to  become  a  ball  player,  nor  vice 
versa.  t  There  may  be  other  things :  race,  health  conditions,  low 
intelligence,  home  life,  etc.,  which  enter  in,  but  it  remains  true  that, 
out  of  a  total  of  3079  children,  the  24  boys  who  desire  to  become 
ball  players  are  notoriously  poor  spellers,  that  the  196  girls  who 
wish  to  be  musicians  and  the  295  who  wish  to  become  stenographers 
are  decidedly  good  spellers. 

So,  whether  general  intelligence,  or  special  spelling  intelligence, 
accounts  for  these  occupational  choices,  does  not  appear  in  this 
showing;  yet  it  does  appear  by  these  facts,  that  the  occupational 
choice  of  a  child  indicates  roughly  what  his  relative  spelling  ef- 
ficiency is.  If  the  pupil  aspires  to  be  a  teacher,  or  a  writer,  or  a 
musician,  then  the  chances  are  that  in  spelling  efficiency  that  child 
ranks  relatively  high.  Or  if  the  ambition  looks  toward  baseball,  or 
labor,  or  nursing,  the  chances  are  that  in  spelling  efficiency  the 
child  would  rank  low. 


48  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

Now,  to  try  to  state  exactly  what  is  the  extent  of  these  differences 
in  general  intelligence  is  not  necessary  and  probably  not  safe  on  the 
basis  of  a  single  limited  study  of  one  kind  of  intelligence.  The 
differences  are  here,  and  if  spelling  efficiency  and  general  intelli- 
gence go  together,  as  our  showing  in  Chapter  3  at  least  suggests, 
then  a  boy's  standing  in  school  work  indicates  roughly  the  direction 
his  occupational  interest  is  likely  to  take.  This  is  clearly  suggested 
below. 

Did  the  good  spellers  select  occupations  in  which  good  spelling  is 
an  important  qualification  ?  Stenographers  made  80.5%  ;  teachers, 
80.2%  ;  writers,  81.2%  ;  bookkeepers,  77.8%  ;  bankers,  81.5%  ;  lawyers, 
78.6%;  librarians,  81.7%;  secretaries,  80.0%;  office  work,  74.4%. 
These  would  all  need  to  be  good  spellers,  and  all  save  the  last  group 
rank  above  the  average  for  the  total  number. 

On  the  other  hand  we  find  that  the  miners  made  75.0% ;  farmers, 
71.7%  ;  actresses,  76.5% ;  artists,  74.9% ;  architects,  74.0% ;  carpen- 
ters, 69.4%;  draftsmen,  69.4%;  mechanics,  72.8%;  seamen,  73.3%  ; 
druggists,  68.5% ;  doctors,  77.6% ;  dressmaking,  73.0%  ;  millinery, 
79.6%  ;  and  salesmen,  65.3%.  Only  the  milliners  rank  up  to  the 
total  group  average.  Most  of  these  need  to  know  how  to  spell,  but 
not  to  the  same  extent  as  do  those  of  the  group  above. 

Roughly,  then,  those  who  have  chosen  an  occupation  which  de- 
mands unusual  spelling  ability  are  the  best  spellers,  while  those  who 
have  chosen  occupations  in  which  ability  to  spell  is  not  of  first  im- 
portance, are  below  average  in  spelling  efficiency. 

There  are  some  exceptions,  as,  wireless  operators  made  only 
72.5%  ;  mail  clerks,  70.0%  ;  merchants,  66.7%  ;  while  actors  made 
81.2%  ;  auto  repairers,  78.6%  ;  and  aviators,  80.%  ;  and  hairdressers, 
84.0%. 

Of  course  we  are  dealing  with  small  groups  in  making  these 
statements,  and  their  significance  lies  not  in  the  fact  that  it  is  true 
that  6  librarians,  or  some  other  small  groups,  average  high,  but  that 
nearly  all  of  these  small  groups  who  ought  to  be  good  spellers,  are, 
and  nearly  all  those  groups  who  need  not  be  good  spellers  are  not, 
and  the  exceptions  are  not  numerous. 

There  are  a  few  rather  striking  facts,  which  at  first  appear  diffi- 
cult to  explain,  such  as  in  the  difference  between  the  standings  for 
the  131  electrical  and  those  for  the  125  civil  engineers.  The  former 
average  73.9%  and  the  latter,  80.6%.  Again,  8  actors  average 
81.2%,  while  23  actresses  average  but  76.5%.  The  16  high  school 
teachers  average  85.0%,  and  the  95  teachers  of  manual  training, 
domestic  science,  etc.,  average  78.6%,  and  the  227  grammar  school 
teachers  average  80.4%.  We  are  likely  to  say  that  electricity  and 
manual  and  domestic  work  appeal  to  certain  students  because  such 
studies  seem  to  offer  relief  from  books,  and  that  these  fields  will 
attract  more  of  the  average  intelligence  group  than  do  the  usual 
lines  of  teaching  or  the  less  exciting  lines  of  engineering.  Hence 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  SOCIAL  DIFFERENCES  49 

such  facts  as  these  do  not  modify  the  general  statement  of  the  re- 
sults which  this  study  shows,  viz:  that  the  type  of  child  which 
aspires  to  enter  a  calling  which  will  demand  superior  spelling  abil- 
ity is  a  child  who  possesses  such  ability,  whereas  the  child  who  has 
not  spelling  ability  will  usually  not  aspire  to  a  calling  which  will 
demand  such  ability. 

FATHER'S  NATIONALITY  AND   SPELLING  EFFICIENCY. 

For  this  section  the  records  of  practically  all  the  3rd,  5th,  and 
8th  grade  children  were  studied.  These  give  us  typical  groups,  in- 
cluding the  grade  which  received  the  poorest  standing  in  the  test 
and  the  one  which  received  the  highest  standing,  also  the  youngest 
children,  a  middle  age  group,  and  the  oldest  children. 

That  we  may  know  the  distribution  of  children  by  the  nationali- 
ties of  their  fathers  the  showing  for  grades  3  and  8  are  pre- 
sented in  Diagram  14.  The  distribution  of  grade  5  would 
doubtless  fall  somewhere  between  these  two,  though  the 
per  cent,  of  foreigners  is  much  lower  here  than  in  either 
the  3rd  or  the  8th  grade.  A  little  study  of  these  two  grade 
groups  is  of  interest  in  comparing  the  showing  for  grade  3  in 
the  test  with  that  for  grade  8,  either  as  is  done  in  this  section,  or  as 
was  done  in  Chapter  2  above.  First  of  all,  grade  8  appears  to  have 
nearly  2y2%  more  native  children  than  has  grade  3.  Second,  of 
the  foreign  groups  the  British  have  more  than  doubled,  the  Ger- 
manic group  has  increased  nearly  one-third,  and  the  Scandinavians 
have  more  than  held  their  own,  while  the  Romanic  group  has  de- 
creased by  approximately  two-thirds  of  its  number.  Of  the  British 
the  chief  gain  is  with  the  English  and  Scotch,  the  Irish  showing  a 
slight  decrease.  Among  the  Germanic  groups  the  chief  gain  is  with 
the  German  and  Dutch.  With  the  Romanic  groups  the  Spanish  has 
disappeared,  the  Italians  and  Portuguese  have  dropped  off  more  than 
two-thirds  of  their  number,  while  the  French  has  gained  slightly. 

The  composition  of  the  group  has  therefore  changed  from  slight- 
ly over  one-half  to  close  to  three-fourths  English  speaking  in  passing 
from  the  3rd  to  the  8th  grade  of  school.  Why  this  percentage  of 
American  fathers  is  so  much  higher  for  the  5th  grade  and  then  falls 
back  again  does  not  appear. 

Table  15  presents  by  per  cents,  the  entire  distribution  of  the 
standings  made  by  the  children  of  the  three  grades,  first  for  the 
grade  as  a  whole,  and  then  for  the  children  of  foreign  fathers  from 
each  grade.  On  the  right  of  this  table  is  the  average  for  each  grade 
and  foreign  group. 

Taking  those  making  100%  in  the  test,  it  will  be  seen  that 
20.4%  of  the  children  of  grade  8,  that  33.4%  of  those  of  grade  5, 
and  that  12.6%.  of  those  of  grade  3  are  included.  While  for  the 


50 


OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 


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SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  SOCIAL  DIFFERENCES 


51 


TABLE  15. 

Showing   the   Per   Cent  of   Children   of  Native   and   of   Foreign   Parents   Who 

Receive  the  Different  Standings  and  for  Those  of 

Foreign  Parents  Separately. 


Children    included  

Standings 

Ave. 
Stand- 

100.| 90 

80  I   70  |   60 

50  |   40 

30 

20  |   10  |    0 

ing 

All   of 
Grade    VIII  

20.4 
17.6 
33.4 
30.9 
12.6 
92 

19.0 
18.9 
25.5 
25.9 
17.8 
169 

18.7 
18.9 
16.5 
16.8 
15.3 
156 

13.9 
13.5 
11.4 
12.1 
13.5 
136 

10.1 
12.3 
5.5 
6.6 
9.8 
10?, 

8.4 
9.0 
3.7 
3.9 
9.1 
98 

4.1 
4.5 
2.0 
1.6 

7.7 
79 

3.7 
3.4 
1.3 
1.5 
5.7 
59 

1.3 
1.2 

.4 
.7 
4.0 
43 

.3 
.5 
.2 

.7 
2.7 
38 

.1 
.2 
.1 
.3 
1.8 
28 

76.3 

74.3 

84.7 
82.4 
66.7 
63.6 

Foreign 
in  Grade  VIII  
All   of 
Grade   V.     . 

Foreign 
in   Grade   V 

All   of 
Grade    III 

Foreign 
in   Grade   III.... 

foreign  group  we  find  approximately  3%.  less  in  each  case.  Of 
those  receiving  90%  in  the  test  we  find  the  foreign  groups  slightly 
ahead  in  grade  5,  almost  equal  to  the  grade  average  in  grade  8,  and 
nearly  1%  behind  in  grade  3.  For  the  80%  standings  the  foreigners 
are  slightly  ahead  in  each  case.  With  slight  variation  the  difference 
in  favor  of  the  foreign  groups  increases  as  we  read  toward  the  lower 
standings.  By  the  averages  shown  at  the  right  of  this  table  it  will 
be  seen  that  children  of  native  and  foreign  fathers  together  spell 
2%  better  in  the  8th  grade,  2.3%  better  in  the  5th  grade,  and  3% 
better  in  the  3rd  grade  than  do  the  children  of  foreign  fathers. 

The  distribution  of  these  standings  may  be  more  easily  seen,  and 
the  groups  more  easily  compared  by  reference  to  Diagram  15.  Here 
it  is  easily  seen  that  the  3rd  grade,  more  than  the  others,  suffers 
from  the  presence  of  the  foreign  groups.  We  will  recall  that  the 
per  cent,  foreign  is  larger  in  the  3rd  than  in  the  8th  grade,  and  that 
the  Romanic  groups  are  relatively  large  in  the  3rd  grade,  and  that 
the  British  groups  are  relatively  large  in  the  8th  grade.  In  order 
to  see  more  clearly  the  effect  of  this  difference  in  the  composition 
of  the  foreign  groups  in  these  two  grades,  they  were  studied  by 
nationalities,  and  their  averages,  so  grouped,  were  compared  with 
the  averages  of  their  respective  grades. 


52 


OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 


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SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  SOCIAL  DIFFERENCES 


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These  comparisons  are  shown  in  Diagram  16.  In  each  case  the 
grade  average  is  shown  by  the  straight  line,  with  which  the  averages 
for  the  different  race  groups  may  be  compared.  It  shows  the  Portu- 
guese low  in  both  cases.  But  we  have  seen  that  very  few  Portu- 


54  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

guese  children  remain  in  school  throughout  the  eight  grades,  hence 
they  do  not  lower  the  average  for  the  8th  grade  very  much.  The 
few  Italians  who  remain  through  to  the  8th  grade  are  superior 
pupils,  but  the  larger  mass  of  them  who  start  in  in  the  earlier  years 
fall  far  below  the  grade  average.  The  Germanic  and  British  groups 
which  we  should  ordinarily  expect  to  rank  well  up  to  the  grade 
average  are  in. all  cases  below  it  in  both  grades,  with  the  exception 
of  the  Austrians,  who  rank  high  in  grade  3  and  very  low  in  grade  8. 
The  Scandinavians  vary,  the  Danes  and  Norwegians  in  both  cases 
being  low,  and  the  Swedes  in  both  cases  high.  It  is  the  Swedes, 
Austrians,  and  Russians  who  keep  the  3rd  grade  foreign  average 
up,  while  these  plus  the  Italians  keep  the  8th  grade  foreign  average 
up.  Of  all  the  foreign  groups,  only  the  French  and  the  few  odd 
Oriental  races,  grouped  as  "all  others,"  fail  to  do  better  in  the  8th 
than  in  the  3rd  grade.  Which  means,  of  course,  that  it  is  the  better 
class  of  foreign  children  who  remain  in  school  through  all  grades. 
It  must  be  remembered  that  children  of  foreigners  are  not 
measured  against  children  of  natives  alone  here,  but  against  the 
entire  grade,  which  includes  themselves.  The  difference  of  2%  to 
3.1%,  therefore,  is  not  the  full  extent  of  the  difference  between 
children  of  natives  and  children  of  foreigners.  A  school  here 
which  is  mainly  foreign  would  likely  rank  not  2%  to  3.1%  lower 
than  the  city  average,  but  more  likely  about  5%  lower. 

INFLUENCE  OF  HOME  LANGUAGE  ON  SPELLING  EFFICIENCY. 

Teachers  whose  classes  are  made  up  of  children  from  homes  of 
foreigners  frequently  complain  that  they  cannot  maintain  high 
standards  because  their  pupils  are  all  foreign  children.  As  to 
whether  this  is  true  or  not  there  is  little  doubt,  but  the  ways  in 
which,  and  the  extent  to  which  it  is  true,  are  important  questions. 

If  the  foreign  child  has  greater  difficulty  in  getting  on  in  school, 
is  his  own  mother  tongue  a  handicap?  If  so,  how,  and  to  what 
extent?  If  the  child  hears  and  speaks  no  lannguage  at  home  except 
Italian,  or  German,  do  the  Italian  and  German  speech  habits  inter- 
fere in  the  child's  attempt  to  use  English?  Or  does  this  lack  of  drill 
in  the  use  of  English  at  home  affect  his  work  in  school?  Under 
this  general  question  comes  our  question  here :  does  this  hearing  and 
using  a  foreign  language  at  home  show  itself  in  the  types  of  errors 
the  child  will  make  in  spelling?  Is  there,  on  the  one  hand,  some- 
thing characteristically  German,  or  Italian,  or  French,  in  his  at- 
tempts to  spell,  or  is  there  merely  a  poverty  of  knowledge  about 
English,  which  shows  itself  in  a  poorer  variety  of  guesses  at  how  to 
spell,  or  is  it  both,  or  neither  of  these? 

A  certain  learned  man  insists  that  he  became  a  poor  speller  of 
English  after  having  studied  French.  If  French  disturbed  his 
English  spelling,  the  opposite  may  easily  be  true  of  foreign  children 
learning  English  as  a  foreign  language. 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  SOCIAL  DIFFERENCES  55 

By  the  time  a  child  reaches  the  8th  grade  his  English  habits 
must  be  well  established.  If  any  of  the  influences  suggested  above 
are  of  consequence  therefore,  it  would  be  in  the  early  grades.  The 
errors  of  2425  4th  grade  children  were  used  for  this  study,  and 
classified  according  to  the  language  spoken  in  the  home  by  the 
father  and  mother.  This  made  40  different  classes  of  errors  for 
where  English  and  a  foreign  language  were  both  used  that  was 
made  a  separate  group.  The  number  of  children  from  homes  in 
which  English  was  not  spoken  at  all  is  474,  or  about  20%.  In- 
cluding those  in  which  both  English  and  a  foreign  language  are 
used  there  are  535,  or  about  22%  of  all  the  children  of  the  grade. 
Of  these  foreign  languages  Portuguese  and  Italian  are  the  most  im- 
portant and  are  the  only  ones  treated  separately  below. 

'fhe  relative  number  of  errors  made  by  children  of  foreign  and  of 
native  parentage  is  in  effect  discussed  above,  but  the  relative  num- 
ber of  different  kinds  of  errors  was  not  mentioned.  Table  16  shows 
these  facts  for  the  children  of  grade  4  by  words.  In  reading  this 


TABLE  16. 

Comparisons  of  Errors  Made  by  Children  from  English  Speaking  Homes  With 
Those  Made  by  Children  from  Foreign  Homes. 

Word  Number  of  different  ways  misspelled  by 

No 

Portu-      Italians    All  other      Total      English     All  to-      attempt 
guese  Foreign    Foreign  gether       made 


forty 

12 

13 

25 

34 

54 

71 

17 

rate 

17 

13 

38 

51 

95 

120 

26 

children 

19 

12 

23 

43 

99 

128 

31 

prison 

22 

14 

40 

58 

89 

116 

19 

title 

28 

24 

41 

73 

117 

163 

60 

getting 

6 

10 

15 

25 

34  ' 

49 

5 

need 

17 

12 

19 

31 

52 

69 

2 

throw 

14 

10 

19 

27 

66 

80" 

24 

feel 

17 

17 

29 

42 

78 

91 

30 

speak 

9 

7 

10 

18 

41 

48 

22 

table  we  need  to  keep  in  mind  that  there  are  four  children  from 
English  speaking  homes  where  one  comes  from  a  home  where  a 
foreign  language  is  all  that  is  heard. 

in  mind  that  there  are  four  children  from  English  speaking- 
homes  where  one  comes  from  a  home  where  a  foreign  language  is 
all  that  is  heard. 

First,  taking  the  word  "forty,"  we  note  that  12  errors  were 
made  by  children  from  Portuguese  homes,  13  by  children  from 
Italian,  and  25  by  children  from  other  foreign  homes,  in  all  34  dis- 


56  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

tinct  errors  were  made  by  children  from  foreign  homes,  while  54 
were  made  by  children  from  English  speaking  homes.  That  is,  the 
foreign  childVen  found  34  distinct  ways  and  the  English  children 
found  54  distinct  ways  to  misspell  the  word  "forty."  Together  they 
found  73  distinct  ways.  Assuming  that  these  errors  are  mere 
guesses,  for  all  but  three  or  four  of  them  are  such,  as  will  be  seen 
later,  then  it  appears  that  535  foreign  children  made  34  guesses, 
while  1780  English  children  made  only  54.  But  since  there  is  a 
limit  to  the  number  of  errors  possible,  or  at  least  reasonably  prob- 
able, it  is  not  possible  to  say  which  has  made  relatively  the  greater 
variety  of  guesses.  This  can  be  said  however,  that  of  the  34  differ- 
ent errors  made  by  the  foreign  group,  17  of  them  were  made  by  one 
or  more  English  speaking  pupils  as  well,  while  of  the  54  made  by 
the  English  speaking  group,  there  were  37  which  were  not  made  by 
any  of  the  foreign  group.  Without  giving  the  figures,  it  may  be 
said  that  the  errors  for  the  other  words  run  about  this  same  way. 
If  there  were  not  some  limit  to  the  number  of  different  errors  pos- 
sible, then  it  would  appear  that  the  foreign  children  furnish  a  rela- 
tively wider  variety  of  guesses  than  do  the  English  speaking 
children.  But  there  is  such  a  limit,  and  so  we  should  not 
expect  the  number  of  different  spellings  made  by  the  English  speak- 
ing children  to  be  4  times  the  number  made  by  the  foreign  group. 
In  the  variety  of  errors  therefore,  it  does  not  appear  that  the  child 
from  a  home  where  no  English  is  spoken  is  at  a  special  disadvantage. 
We  must  also  remember  here  that  the  children  of  foreign  parents 
do  not  spell  as  well  as  do  the  children  of  native  parents.-  (see  above). 
Secondly,  what  is  the  distribution  of  these  errors  for  the  foreign 
as  compared  with  the  English  speaking  group?  This  is  revealed 
by  table  17,  which  shows  the  three  or  four  most  popular  spellings 
for  each  word  as  they  were  made  by  the  different  groups  of  pupils. 
It  will  be  seen  that  an  error  which  is  popular  with  one  group  is 
usually  just  as  popular  with  the  other  groups.  Table  16  shows  that 
the  total  number  of  errors  for  the  10  words  range  from  49  on  the 
word  "getting"  to  163  on  the  word  "title."  All  spellings  made  by 
at  least  1%  of  any  group  are  included  in  Table  17.  A  comparison 
of  the  columns  of  this  Table  shows  the  relative  popularity  of  a  given 
error  with  the  different  groups.  In  this  Table  the  correct  spelling 
of  each  word  is  followed  by  the  chief  errors.  The  vast  number  of 
errors  not  shown  in  the  table  merely  means  that  most  of  the  errors 
are  made  by  only  one  or  two  children,  sometimes  by  a  foreign,  some- 
times by  an  English  speaking  child,  and  very  frequently  by  both. 

Referring  to  the  word  "forty"  in  the  table,  it  will  be  seen  that 
70.8%  of  the  English,  64.3%  of  the  Portuguese,  61.1%,  of  the 
Italian,  and  69.5%  of  all  other  foreign  speaking  children  spell  the 
word  correctly.  The  most  important  error,  f-o-u-r-t-y,  is  made  by 
21.3%  of  the  English,  24.6%  of  the  Portuguese,  27.6%,  of  the 
Italian,  and  20.8%  of  all  other  foreign  speaking  children.  The 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  SOCIAL  DIFFERENCES 


57 


TABLE  17. 

Comparative    Distribution    of    Spelling    Among    Different    Nationalities. 
How  the  Word  Was  Spelled  and  by  What  Per  Cent  of  Each  Group. 


Word 


Portuguese        Italian 


All  Other 
Foreign 


English 


forty  64.3  61.1  69.5  70.8 

fourty 24.6  27.6  20.8  21.3 

forthy  1.3  0.  1.6  1.2 

fourthy    1.3  .74  .56  .55 

rate  82.8  76.8  80.2  79.6 

rait    3.4  9.7  4.3  3.4 

raite    0.  1.4  .82  1.7 

wrate 1.8  .74  .27  1.4 

children  84.9  88.0+  83.9  88.0+ 

chrildren    2.7  2.2  1.9  1.4 

childern    .68  1.4  1.3  1.2 

childen  \ .68  0.  1.0+  .67 

prison  80.8  85.0+  84.9  86.5 

prisen   2.7  0.  1.6  2.5 

prision    .68  2*.2  0.  1.2 

title  55.5  66.4  61.6  66.1 

tittle    16.4  14.1  11.2  9.8 

titel   2.7  1.4  2.1  2.8 

tital  1.3  0.  2.7  2.7 

tidle    1.8  1.4  1.9  1.7 

getting  76.0+  67.0+  69.5  77.0+ 

geting  20.5  26.1  22.4  20.0+ 

geating  0.  0.  .56  .20+ 

need    60.2  71.6  69.3  68.0+ 

nead    16.4  17.1  20.8  20.3 

knead    8.9  3.7  1.9  2.8 

kneed    2.05  0.  1.6  2.1 

neid .68  0.  .56  .68 

throw   61.6  61.6  63.8  60.2 

through    25.3  30.5  23.0+  27.7 

thow    0.  .74  1.91  1.06 

though    .68  0.  1.0+  1.4 

feel    „ 54.1  51.4  65.2  59.4 

feal    9.5  11.1  9.5  13.6 

field  19.1  14.9  7.9  8.03 

feild    2.7  .74  2.4  2.6 

fiel  1.3  1.4  1.91  2.4 

speak   91.0+  91.0+  92.0+  86.8 

speek  3.4  4.4  4.1  4.6 

speake  0.  .74  .27  .73 


58  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

next  most  important  error  is  made  by  less  than  2%  of  any  group 
and  the  third  most  important  error  is  made  by  less  than  1%  of  any 
group.  A  similar  examination  of  the  showing  for  the  other  words 
convinces  one  that  children  from  foreign  homes  make  the  same 
errors  as  do  children  from  homes  where  the  mother  tongue  is 
English,  and  furthermore,  that  they  make  them  in  approximately 
the  same  proportion. 

Where  an  error  is  -made  by  not  more  than  one  or  two  children 
out  of  so  many  it  is  clear  that  the  spelling  was  only  a  random  guess. 
To  see  what  proportion  of  all  spelling  errors  are  due  to  random 
guessing  refer  again  to  the  word  "forty"  in  Table  17.  First  assume 
that  f-o-u-r-t-y,  f-o-r-t-h-y,  and  f-o-u-r-t-h-y,  are  specially  attractive 
spellings  for  children  to  use  on  this  word,  that  since  so  many  chose 
these  ways  there  must  be  something  reasonable  about  them,  then 
we  have  left  67  other  distinct  spellings  to  account  for.  But  on 
adding  the  figures  in  our  table  for  the  word  "forty"  we  see  that 
these  67  ways  comprise  only  from  approximately  7%  to  12%  of  the 
children.  If  from  20.8%  to  27.6%  of  these  children  all  together 
make  only  three  types  of  errors  on  the  one  hand,  and  from  7%  to 
12%  make  67  different  types  of  errors  on  the  other,  then  this  seems 
to  argue  that  these  three  errors  are  important  and  represent  attract- 
ive lines  of  incorrect  procedure  for  the  child,  whereas  any  one  of  the 
67  others  might  never  be  selected  since  here  it  has  attracted  but  one 
or  two  children. 

What  we  are  interested  in  here  is,  that  children  from  foreign 
homes  do  precisely  what  other  children  do  and  in  about  the  same 
proportion. 

As  was  pointed  out  above,  children  from  foreign  homes  do  make 
errors  which  are  not  made  by  children  whose  mother  tongue  is 
English,  but  in  all  cases  such  errors  are  made  by  not  more  than  two 
or  three  children,  and  so  by  that  fact  prove  themselves  not  to  be 
errors  which  are  for  some  reason  specially  attractive  to  children  of 
a  given  nationality,  who  hear  only  Italian,  or  German,  or  French  at 
home.  They  are  mere  random  guesses  in  which  the  order  of  letters 
nowhere  seems  to  have  been  influenced  by  habits  of  speaking,  hear- 
ing, reading,  or  writing  the  foreign  home  language.  Wherever  a 
word  does  look  slightly  French,  or  German,  or  Italian,  it  is  fre- 
quently found  that  a  native  child  produced  the  same  combination. 

So,  from  this  study  it  appears  that  the  mother  tongue,  when 
foreign,  offers  no  handicap  due  in  a  peculiar  way  to  the  home 
language.  As  was  shown  above,  children  from  foreign  homes  do 
not  spell  as  well  as  do  children  of  natives,  but  there  is  here  no  spe- 
cific evidence  that  their  home  language  is  responsible  for  this.  The 
evidence  that  the  difficulty  is  not  in  the  effect  of  the  home  language 
lies  in  the  fact  that  there  is  no  noticeable  differance — save  the  slight 
difference  in  extent  found  above — between  the  errors  made  by 


SPELLING  EFFICIENCY  AND  SOCIAL  DIFFERENCES  59 

children  from  homes  where  only  English  is  spoken  and  those  where 
only  a  foreign  language  is  spoken. 

No  effort  is  made  here  to  classify  these  errors.  Some  of  those 
in  table  17  are  easily  accounted  for  on  the  basis  of  incorrect  hearing. 
But  whatever  affected  the  native  child  affected  similarly  the  child 
of  the  foreigner,  hence  we  are  not  concerned  with  any  other  sort  of 
analysis  of  the  errors  here. 

One  word  may  be  said  however,  viz.  that  when  we  know  that 
there  is  one  chance  in  ten  that  a  child  will  spell  "title"  t-i-t-t-1-e,  then 
we  know  one  very  important  thing  to  fortify  the  child  against  when 
we  teach  that  word.  This  is  just  as  true  for  the  foreign  as  for  the 
native  child.  And  a  second  thing  we  know  is,  that  there  is  a  fair 
chance  that  a  child,  English  as  well  as  foreign,  will  simply  guess  at 
his  spelling.  We  should  also  fortify  with  strong  habits,  dictionary 
habits  in  the  upper  grades,  against  all  guessing. 

SUMMARY  AND  CONCLUSIONS. 

In  this  chapter  it  is  not  meant  to  assume  that  the  standings 
made  by  the  children  studied  are  due  exclusively  to  the  social  fac- 
tors considered.  These  factors  are  no  more  cause  than  they  are 
effect.  Just  as  different  occupations  attract  different  individuals  so 
different  individuals  select  different  occupations.  Technical  occu- 
pations do  not  attract  people  who  haven't  intelligence  enough  to 
enter  them,  nor  do  men  of  unusual  ability  usually  choose  to  be  hod- 
carriers. 

The  school  wishes  to  know  the  material  it  has  to  work  with.  It 
is  as  much  concerned  with  differences  as  with  likenesses,  because  its 
problem  is  always  with  the  individual.  If  the  child's  contact  with 
the  institutional  life  brings  out  individual  differences  which  the 
school  ought  to  be  cognizant  of,  then  the  school  ought  to  study 
children  with  respect  to  their  institutional  relationships. 

Our  study  of  2644  children  grouped  by  their  fathers'  occupa- 
tions show  that  children  of  laborers  rank  lower  in  this  test  than  do 
the  children  of  any  of  the  other  groups.  The  differences  between 
these  groups,  most  of  which  are  not  large,  may  be  due  to  original  en- 
dowment, or  to  training,  or  to  both.  The  point  is,  they  exist,  and 
must  be  due  to  something.  The  school  tends  to  make  children  uni- 
form in  their  studies  and  that  means  that  the  school  obliterates  just 
such  differences  as  these.  Our  question  is,  does  it  do  so  by  holding 
the  brighter  groups  down  to  the  speed  of  the  duller  groups,  or  by  ac- 
cepting a  lower  grade  of  work  from  the  slower  children  ? 

When  the  school  knows  that  differences  exist,  and  then  knows 
where  those  differences  are,  and  how  they  manifest  themselves,  its 
problem  then  becomes  specific  in  place  of  general  and  vague.  Such 
differences  are  found  to  exist  between  the  children  whose  parents 
are  in  different  occupational  groups,  between  childrn  in  different 


60  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

groups  according  to  their  occupational  ambitions,  and  between 
children  of  native  and  foreign  parents.  Not  only  do  we  know 
these  differences  exist  with  respect  to  spelling  efficiency,  but  how 
great  they  are. 

The  responsibility  of  the  school  lies  in  the  direction  of  refining 
the  more  minute  adjustments  of  the  school  to  the  child,  and  seeing 
to  it  that  every  child  is  able  and  does  enjoy  his  full  educational  op- 
portunity. The  first  move  is  to  study  the  health  and  attendance 
records  of  the  children,  so  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  child 
of  the  laborer,  or  the  child  who  wishes  to  become  a  nurse  or  baseball 
player,  or  the  child  of  foreign  parents  is  as  physically  fit,  and  as 
infrequently  absent,  and  as  adequately  equipped  with  school  necessi- 
ties as  are  other  children.  When  the  school  has  done  this  and  re- 
moved any  existing  differences  of  this  sort  it  must  accept  any 
further  differences  as  hindrances  to  proper  grading,  classification, 
and  group  teaching,  and  must  meet  them  with  special  provision  of 
separate  rooms,  assistant  teachers,  etc.,  and  not  permit  the  slow  work 
of  a  few  pupils  to  retard  the  progress  of  the  bright  children  who 
ought  by  all  means  to  be  kept  busy  up  to  their  full  capacity  for  work. 

All  the  results  shown  in  this  chapter  save  those  in  the  last  sec- 
tion, show  definite  differences  to  exist  between  children  along  cer- 
tain lines.  Not  only  does  economy  of  time  in  handling  these  chil- 
dren, but  also  economy  of  educational  opportunity  for  the  children 
as  well,  rest  upon  knowing  what  these  differences  are,  their  extent, 
and  how  they  manifest  themselves  in  their  school  work,  and  then 
upon  refining  the  grading,  teaching,  and  grouping  of  these  children 
to  the  end  that  these  differences  shall  not  operate  as  retarding  in- 
fluences upon  class  progress.  This  requires  careful  study  by  prin- 
cipal, supervisor,  and  teacher,  and  constant  readjustment.  It  is  not 
a  question  that  can  be  permanently  settled.  Its  solution  is  ever  in 
process,  and  requires  continuous  alertness  on  the  part  of  teacher, 
supervisor,  and  principal. 

The  influence  of  the  home  language  seems  not  to  be  very  evi- 
dent, since  the  errors  made  by  children  of  foreign  homes  are  in  the 
main  identical  with  those  made  by  children  whose  home  language  is 
English,  and  are  made  in  approximately  similar  proportions. 
Neither  do  the  errors  show  by  the  order  of  letters  any  influence  of 
a  foreign  language.  That  is,  the  difference  found  above  between 
the  spelling  of  children  of  native  and  foreign  parents  seems  not  to 
be  due  to  the  influence  of  the  foreign  mother  tongue  so  far  as  the 
number  and  type  of  spelling  errors  could  reveal  this. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  ADMINISTRATION  AND  TEACHING  OF  SPELLING. 

THE  PROBLEM. 

The  administration  of  the  subject  of  spelling  has  only  recently 
come  to  be  based  upon  something  besides  tradition.  The  erroneous 
idea  that  efficiency  in  spelling  consists  in  being  able  to  spell  several 
thousand  uncommon  words,  and  that  good  teaching  of  spelling 
consists  in  a  bare  assignment  of  a  long  list  of  words,  and  later  in 
testing  orally  or  in  writing  to  see  whether  or  not  those  words  have 
been  learned,  have  in  recent  years  become  archaic  notions,  replaced 
by  the  idea  that  the  actual  number  of  words  which  a  child  should  be 
able  to  spell  is  relatively  small,  and  to  be  determined  by  his  written, 
not  his  speaking  and  reading  vocabularies.  In  like  manner  psychol- 
ogy has  shown  the  futility  of  undirected  study,  of  bare  drill,  as  a 
method  of  work  for  the  child. 

From  these  studies  of  psychological  and  practical  facts,  and  to 
some  extent  from  the  more  modern  handling  of  the  cost  side  of 
public  education,  and  the  demands  of  the  business  world,  have 
arisen  problems  in  the  administration  of  spelling,  such  as :  what 
shall  constitute  the  subject  matter  of  the  course,  what  place  shall  it 
occupy  in  the  curriculum  and  in  the  daily  time  schedule,  what  its 
relation  to  other  subjects,  the  grading  of  the  words,  the  length  of 
lesson  assignments,  etc.  ?  In  other  words,  the  modern  superintendent 
has  an  educational  policy  which  is  just  as  well  defined  and  as  con- 
structive in  respect  to  spelling  and  its  function  in  the  training  of 
children  as  it  is  in  respect  to  the  construction  of  buildings  or  the 
purchase  of  equipment.  Such  a  policy  sees  spelling  not  as  a  sepa- 
rate subject  alone,  but  in  its  relation  to  other  subjects,  as  a  part  of 
a  child's  total  equipment. 

The  tendency  today  is  not  merely  to  formulate  such  a  policy 
and  leave  it  to  its  fate  in  the  hands  of  principals,  busy  with  admin- 
istrative details,  but  to  secure  highly  trained  officers  whose  special 
task  it  is  to  put  that  policy  into  practice  by  painstaking  supervision 
of  the  work  of  teachers. 

Oakland  is  not  indefinite  with  respect  to  her  policy  as  it  affects 
spelling,  nor  is  she  without  competent  officials  through  whom  to 
administer  that  policy.  In  addition  to  the  printed  course  of  study 
the  writer  is  indebted  to  Miss  Ida  Vandergaw,  supervisor  of  pri- 
mary work,  for  a  detailed  statement  of  the  policy  affecting  spelling, 
which  policy  has  been  in  effect  during  the  past  five  years  in  the 
city's  schools.  Stated  in  few  words,  and  without  the  pedagogical 
and  psychological  reasons  set  forth  in  the  communication,  the  plan 
is  as  follows: 

OAKLAND'S  POLICY  AFFECTING  SPELLING. 

During  the  first  year  spelling  is  not  taught  till  the  last  six 
weeks.  During  this  year  composition  is  "oral  only,"  and  writing 


62  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

"at  the  blackboard  entirely  during  the  first  term,  mainly  there  dur- 
ing the  second.  Seat  work,  large  free  exercises."  Reading  is 
taught  by  a  phonetic  method  and  consequently  must  not  be  con- 
fused by  the  study  of  spelling,  which  deals  with  letters  and  their 
order  instead  of  with  sound  elements. 

In  the  second  year  the  spelling  work  aims  to  develop  the  habit 
of  noting  words  as  made  up  of  parts :  e.  g.,  fishing  f-ish-ing.  Also 
the  "habit  of  never  guessing"  at  the  spelling  of  a  word.  The  words 
studied  are  "selected  mainly  from  words  -  asked  for  during  corn-, 
position  lessons."  The  writing  continues  as  blackboard  work,  seat 
work  with  pencil,  with  "written  spelling  and  composition  on  the 
blackboard."  Written  composition  begins  in  the  second  half  of  the 
year,  and  so  creates  a  demand  for  knowledge  of  spelling  and  writing. 

The  justifications  for  this  policy  are  clearly  stated,  and  are  from 
the  standpoint  of  psychology  and  physiology  sound.  The  teaching 
of  reading  is  the  first  business  of  the  schools  in  Oakland,  and  all 
other  formal  work  awaits  progress  in  this  subject  to  a  certain  point. 

There  are  certain  important  questions  to  be  answered :  first, 
how  long  will  it  take  to  establish  control  of  the  mechanics  of  read- 
ing to  the  point  where  learning  and  using  the  letters  in  spelling 
will  not  interfere  with  the  handling  of  words  from  a  phonetic  ap- 
proach? Oakland's  answer  is  six  weeks  less  than  one  school  year. 
Second,  How  old  must  a  child  be,  or  how  long  must  he  have  been 
in  school,  and  what  training  is  needed  before  he  can  wisely  under- 
take the  physical  and  mental  task  of  writing?  Oakland  starts  the 
child  to  writing  during  the  first  year,  but  requires  no  written  lan- 
guage work  before  the  second  half  of  the  second  year.  That  is,  a 
year  and  a  half  are  spent  on  some  kind  of  writing  exercises  before 
the  child  is  asked  to  make  writing  a  mode  of  expressing  his  thought. 
Third,  How  much  drill  in  oral  expression  should  precede  work  in 
written  expression?  Oakland  says  one  and  one-half  years. 

Now,  from  the  experimental  knowledge  we  have,  the  order  of 
approach,  and  the  reasons  offered  for  that  order,  are  entirely  sound. 
The  question  of  speed  is  not  yet  so  fully  settled.  It  is  one  thing  to 
say  that  the  procedure  should  be  first  in  terms  of  the  coarser  ad- 
justments, and  quite  a  different  thing  to  say  how  fast  training  in 
the  coarser  adjustments  shall  take  place,  and  how  far  it  must  have 
proceeded  before  training  in  the  finer  adjustments  can  wisely  begin. 
The  difficulty  lies,  not  in  stating  the  general  principles,  but  in  stating 
the  rate  at  which  the  different  steps  in  the  training  may  succeed  each 
other.  Oakland  demands  serious  work  on  the  ordinary  penman- 
ship controls  at  the  age  of  seven  and  one-half  years.  That  is,  pen- 
manship as  a  mode  of  expression  has  waited  for  this  length  of  time 
the  development  of  finer  muscular  and  visual  co-ordinations  on  the 
physical  side,  and  the  development  of  facility  in  oral  expression  and 
a  legitimate  motive  on  the  intellectual  side,  while  spelling  has 
awaited  the  development  of  some  writing  controls,  of  facility  in  oral 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  AND  TEACHING  OF  SPELLING          63 

expression,  and  knowledge  and  skill  in  the  phonetic  approach  to 
reading.  All  this  is  good  order,  and  not  much  by  way  of  achieve- 
ment in  writing  and  spelling  during  the  first  two  years  is  expected. 
In  the  light  of -this  test  that  for  spelling  is  lower  than  has  been  at- 
tained in  other  cities. 

Contrary  to  this  plan  of  deferring  the  teaching  of  penmanship 
till  there  is  occasion  to  use  it  for  expression  purposes,  and  conse- 
quently of  spelling  until  need  through  writing  exists  for  it,  we  see 
the  Montesorri  system  beginning  both  of  these  subjects  during  kin- 
dergarten age,  carefully  creating  motive,  and  getting  results.  But 
aside  from  this  as  an  extreme,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  traditional 
practice  in  American  cities  has  been  to  undertake  both  formal  spell- 
ing and  formal  writing  before  the  end  of  the  first  year.  That  is, 
Oakland  has  definitely  and  purposely  departed  from  the  traditional 
practice  in  this  particular,  and  has  thus  far  justified  the  procedure  on 
theoretical  grounds,  and  upon  the  assumption  that  superior  work 
in  oral  expression  has  been  accomplished. 

This  policy  has  been  in  operation  for  five  years,  and,  as  shown 
in  chapter  2,  the  schools  stand  very  low  in  spelling  in  grades  2  and 
3,  possibly  as  a  result.  This  must  be  offset  by  gain  somewhere,  else 
an  added  spelling  burden  is  unnecessarily  being  placed  upon  the 
grades  above  these.  As  stated  in  chapter  2,  mere  opinion  is  not  an 
absolute  guarantee  of  this,  and  steps  should  be  taken  to  make  quan- 
titative statement  of  this  supposed  gain  in  oral  expression  by  use  of 
such  measures  as  the  Thorndike  and  Courtis  reading  and  word  test. 

As  stated  above,  no  fault  can  be  found  with  the  order  of  pro- 
cedure followed  in  Oakland  (assuming  that  the  policy  is  really  be- 
ing carried  out),  but  until  it  is  shown  that  the  supposed  gain  in  oral 
language  and  dramatics  is  a  real  one,  the  policy  cannot  fully  recom- 
mend itself  to  the  more  conservative  school  public  in  point  of  time 
for  beginning  formal  school  work  in  writing  and  spelling.  Not 
having  looked  for  evidence  one  way  or  the  other,  the  writer  has  no 
reason  for  supposing  that  such  gain  is  not  an  actual  one,  but  if  so, 
it  is  all  the  more  important  that  we  should  know  about  it.  It  is 
true  that  the  sooner  penmanship  is  mastered  the  sooner  a  child  will 
•make  use  of  it  as  a  mode  of  expression,  and  so  necessitate  work  in 
spelling.  This  must  not  go  so  far  forward  in  the  course  as  to  con- 
fuse the  child  in  his  work  in  phonetics,  nor  in  such  intensity  as  to 
become  hygienically  objectionable.  On  the  other  hand,  just  because 
these  subjects  are  'formal,  they  need  not  be  taught  as  abstract  ma- 
terial, and  so  on  that  account  deferred  till  the  child  is  more  mature. 

If  the  time  for  beginning  the  formal  subjects  depends  upon  ma- 
turity we  must  remember,  first,  that  chronological  age  does  not 
fairly  indicate  intellectual  maturity,  that  every  entering  class,  accord- 
ing to  the  Binet  tests,  contains  children  both  older  and  younger 
mentally  than  six  years.  That  is,  in  practice,  maturity  is  not  after 
all  made  the  basis  for  classifying  children  as  they  enter  school. 


64  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

School  practice  will  make  use  of  mental  maturity  as  a  basis  for 
classifying  children  when  a  means  for  determining  maturity  is  per- 
fected, but  till  then,  we  must  not  set  too  much  store  by  the  as- 
sumption that  a  given  child  is  too  young  for  certain  work  because 
he  is  but  six  years  old.  While  we  must  defer  formal  school  work 
till  it  can  be  properly  motivated,  we  must  not  fail  also  to  look  into 
the  possibilities  of  developing  motive  as  early  as  possible. 

In  other  words,  when  to  begin  this  or  that  study  is  as  yet  largely 
a  matter  of  opinion,  and  only  controlled  practice  will  give  us  final 
answer.  It  is  noteworthy,  that  cities  are  making  their  procedure 
more  and  more  definite,  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  what  Oakland 
has  done  by  way  of  a  slight  break,  not  entirely  exceptional,  to  be 
sure,  with  the  traditional  procedure,  may  help  to  solve  the  question. 
We  know  that  the  anticipated  effect  of  this  on  spelling  has  been 
realized,  but  we  do  not  know  the  extent  to  which  the  anticipated 
effect  on  oral  English,  dramatics,  etc.,  has  resulted,  and  this  Oakland 
is  obligated  to  inquire  into.  It  is  the  writer's  opinion  that  when  the 
results  are  known,  the  policy  will  in  general  commend  itself.  Its 
enforcement  will  require  more  careful  supervision,  for  the  reason 
that  not  only  are  results  in  content  work  for  these  years  more  diffi- 
cult to  measure  and  check  up,  but  because  the  material  to  be 
taught  is  less  definite,  and  the  methods  demand  a  higher  degree  of 
teaching  skill. 

TIME  ALLOTMENT  AND  SPELLING  EFFICIENCY. 

It  has  been  said  repeatedly,  on  the  basis  of  some  investigation, 
that  there  is  little  correlation  between  the  amount  of  time  used  for 
the  teaching  of  spelling,  and  the  degree  of  efficiency  attained  in  that 
subject.  The  following  is  an  attempt  to  test  that  statement  for  the 
schools  of  Oakland,  and  to  furnish  the  reader  with  the  facts  as  they 
appear.  One  difficulty  in  passing  final  judgment,  is  that  the  degree 
of  efficiency  shown  in  any  test  is  not  the  result  of  the  work  of  one 
year,  and  since  the  time  allotment  varies  widely  between  classes, 
often  in  the  same  school,  we  have  no  way  of  knowing  whether  the 
time  which  is  being  given  to  spelling  by  a  given  class  this  year  is 
equal  to,  greater,  or  less  than  the  amount  used  by  that  class  the  year 
preceding.  It  is  true  in  general,  however,  that,  excepting  grades  7 
and  8,  there  is  not  a  wide  difference  in  the  time  allotment  for  the 
different  grades.  By  using  a  large  number  of  classes,  therefore,  we 
should  be  able  to  find  the  general  tendency  toward  such  correlation, 
if  any  exists. 

The  actual  amount  of  time  set  apart  for  the  study  and  recitation 
of  spelling  in  the  different  classes  and  grades  is  presented  in  table 
18,  which  shows  on  the  right,  the  average  number  of  minutes  per 
week,  and  the  per  cent,  of  total  school  time  devoted  to  this  subject. 

From  this  table  we  see  that  classes  in  the  different  grades  spend 
all  the  way  from  15  to  125  minutes  per  week  on  the  preparation  of 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  AND  TEACHING  OF  SPELLING 


65 


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66  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

spelling  lessons,  with  an  average  in  all  grades  of  60  minutes  per 
week,  which  equals  4.69  per  cent,  of  the  total  school  time.  As  be- 
tween grades,  the  range  is  from  43  to  67  minutes  on  the  average. 

As  to  recitation  time,  the  range  between  classes  is  from  10  to 
110  minutes  per  week,  with  an  average  in  all  grades  of  49  minutes, 
and  a  range  between  grade  averages  of  from  38  to  55  minutes  per 
week. 

Taking  all  the  classes  which  reported  both  items,  we  find  that 
from  25  to  200  minutes  per  week  is  devoted  to  spelling  by  different 
classes,  that  the  average  time  is  103  minutes,  or  8.52  per  cent,  of 
total  school  time,  with  a  range  between  grades  of  from  82  to  118 
minutes. 

If  we  are  not  surprised  at  this  wide  range  in  time  allotments,  we 
must  at  least  be  surprised  to  find  that  grade  2  actually  spends  a 
larger  percentage  of  its  time  on  spelling  than  is  spent  by  any  other 
grade,  and  that  the  3rd  grade  comes  next.  The  2nd  grade  spends 
on  an  average  more  minutes  per  week  in  preparing  spelling  lessons 
than  are  spent  by  any  other  grade. 

It  may  be  interesting  to  arrange  the  grades  in  order,  first  of  the 
per  cent,  of  time  spent  per  week,  and  second  in  order  of  their  rank 
an  the  test.  Placing  those  which  rank  highest  first,  they  are  as 
follows : 

Order  as  to  time  spent,  they  are  grades :  2,  3,  4,  5,  6,  8,  7 
Order  of  standing  in  test :  5,  6,  7,  8,  4,  3,  2 

If  there  is  any  correlation  in  this  rough  way,  it  appears  to  be  of 
a  negative  sort. 

If  this  amount  of  time  was  given  to  spelling  in  the  last  six 
weeks  of  grade  1,  then,  when  grade  2  took  the  test,  the  A  division 
had  had  approximately  18  weeks  of  work  with  an  average  of  101 
minutes  per  week  spent  on  the  subject,  while  the  B  division  had  had 
one  semester  more  than  this.  From  which  it  appears  that  after  all, 
the  children  are  receiving  quite  substantial  training  in  spelling  be- 
fore they  need  it  in  their  composition  work,  which  in  the  third  year 
is  partly  written. 

This  appears  to  show  that  the  standard  set  by  this  test,  based 
on  actual  achievement  in  nearly  100  cities,  is  too  high  to  be  at- 
tained by  a  class  which  has  had  but  18  weeks'  work  in  spelling,  and 
that  it  can  be  attained  by  children  who  have  had  approximately  one 
year  of  work  (the  upper  half  of  grade  2,  with  1  semester  plus  18 
weeks  of  work,  made  an  average  of  69  per  cent.,  the  standard  being 
70  per  cent.). 

Certainly  8 :52  per  cent,  of  a  child's  second  year  in  school  is 
enough,  in  fact  more  than  enough,  to  spend  on  the  single  subject 
of  spelling.  If  spelling  does  begin  a  little  late  in  the  Oakland 
schools,  it  begins  very  much  in  earnest  when  the  time  comes  for  it. 

Diagram  17  shows  the  points  of  emphasis  in  this  distribution 
for  study  and  recitation  time  separately  and  in  combination.  It 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  AND  TEACHING  OF  SPELLING         67 


68 


OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 


appears  that  30,  50,  and  75  minutes  per  week  for  recitation;  50, 
60,  and  75  minutes  for  study,  and  100,  125,  and  150  minutes  per 
week  for  both  are  the  most  popular  plans  of  time  allotment. 

The  distribution  of  time  with  respect  to  the  number  of  periods 
per  week  given  to  the  subject  varies  somewhat  as  appears  in  table 

TABLE  19. 

Showing  the   Distribution  of  Classes  in  Each  Grade  with  Respect  to   the 
Number  of  Spelling  Periods  per  Week. 


2 

3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

1  

0 

0 

1 

1 

1 

0 

1 

2  

1 

1 

0 

0 

1 

6 

2 

3              -           

4 

3 

3 

6 

7 

14 

17 

4 

1 

2 

5 

8 

17 

5 

9 

5.  

37 

52 

50 

39 

32 

11 

3 

19,  but  there  is  a  clear  tendency  to  have  spelling  five  times  a  week 
in  grades  2,  3,  4,  5,  and  6,  with  3  periods  per  week  as  the  central 
tendency  for  grades  7  and  8. 

TIME  ALLOTMENT  COMPARED  WITH  THAT  IN  USE  IN  OTHER  CITIES. 

But  two  of  the  ten  cities  for  which  data  was  available  devote  a 
larger  percentage  of  their  total  school  time  to  spelling  than  does 
Oakland,  as  is  shown  in  table  20.  The  extreme  range  among 


TABLE  20. 

Comparative  Standing  of  Ten  Cities  With  Respect  to  the  Per  Cent,  of  Total 
School  Time   Devoted   to   Spelling.* 


CITY 

%  of  total  time  used 
for  spelling 

Kansas   City                                                       

10.70 

Cincinnati 

9  57 

Oakland 

8  52 

Milwaukee                                                                              

8.07 

Salt   Lake   City  

7.11 

St    Louis 

6  39 

Cleveland 

594 

Indianapolis                                                                            

5.33 

Rochester 

528 

San   Francisco..... 

5.23 

*  Data  for  all  cities  except  Oakland  and  Salt  Lake  City. is  for  the  year  1907-8. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  AND  TEACHING  OF  SPELLING 


69 


classes  in  Salt  Lake  City  is  from  30  to  300  minutes  per  week,  while 
for  Oakland  it  is  from  25  to  200  minutes  per  week.  Some  varia- 
bility between  grades,  and  between  schools  is  of  course  necessary, 
but  it  does  not  seem  possible  that  200  minutes  per  week,  which  is 
over  16  per  cent,  of  the  entire  school  time,  could  be  used  to  advan- 
tage in  the  teaching  of  spelling.  Such  studies  as  have  been  made 
of  this  subject,  make  it  doubtful  whether  more  than  15  minutes  per 
day  should  be  used  for  spelling.  For  Oakland  that  would  be 
slightly  over  6  per  cent,  of  her  entire  school  time,  which  would 
place  her  about  half  way  between  the  extremes  represented  by  the 
ten  cities  cited  above.  A  reduction  of  time  so  that  it  will  not  ex- 
ceed 100  minutes  should  certainly  be  recommended  for  the  schools 
of  Oakland. 

RELATION   OF   TIME   CONSUMED   TO   ACHIEVEMENT   IN   THE   TEST. 

Records  for  ten  8th  grade,  15  6th  grade  and  14  3rd  grade 
classes  from  16  different  schools  were  examined  with  a  view  to 
showing  the  relation  between  the  amount  of  time  the  class  is  using 
for  spelling  and  the  average  score  attained  by  the  class  in  this  test. 
(B  or  A.B.  classes  were  used  because  they  have  followed  these  time 
schedules  for  the  past  half  year  at  least.)  These  records  are  shown 
in  table  21  which  presents  the  average  scores  for  the  classes,  ar- 
ranged in  descending  order  by  grades,  and  the  score  for  each  class 
in  the  adjoining  column. 

TABLE  21. 

Relation   Between    Minutes    of   Time    Per   Week    Spent    on    Spelling    and    the 
Standing  Made  in  the  Test.     39  Classes  from  16  Schools. 


GRADE  VIII 

GRADE  VII 

GRADE  III 

Standing 

Time  Used 

Standing 

Time  Used 

Standing 

Time  Used 

86.3 

90 

90.3 

125 

88.8 

70 

812 

40 

90.0 

100 

85.1 

120 

80.0 

100 

88.4 

80 

82.0 

125 

79.8 

70 

87.6 

60 

78.4 

95 

79.3 

60 

86.7 

165 

73.7 

120 

78.2 

180 

82.9 

135 

73.7 

120 

75.4 

60 

81.3 

115 

73.7 

80 

74.9 

90 

79.5 

150 

71.0 

80 

72.0 

90 

79.0 

150 

70.3 

125 

68.9 

90 

77.3 

100 

68.0 

120 

77.1 

100 

65.4 

30 

77.1 

150 

60.0 

150 

73.3 

95 

59.1 

125 

71.7 

90 

57.7 

80 

71.5 

100 

In  grade  8  the  class  using  the  least  amount  of  time  made  next 
to  the  highest  score.  Similarly  in  the  other  two  grades  there  is  no 
apparent  influence  of  large  and  small  amounts  of  time.  Diagram 


70 


OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 
DIAGRAM  18. 


Showing   Relation   Between   Class   Standings   and   the   Amount   of  Time   Used 

for  Spelling.     From  Records  of  39  Classes,  of  Either  B  or  AB 

Grades,  in  16  Schools,  Grades  8,  6,  and  3. 

Time 
used 


ISO 


100 


18  presents  the  records  of  these  39  classes  graphically,  from  which 
it  is  evident  that  classes  which  use  the  most  time  do  not  receive 
correspondingly  high  scores.  In  fact  if  this  curve  were  smoothed 
out,  it  would  be  approximately  parallel  with  the  base  line,  which 
means  that  there  is  no  correlation  either  positive  or  negative  be- 
tween the  two  sets  of  facts. 

Whether  this  proves  anything  or  not  it  represents  a  cross  section 
view  of  the  situation  as  it  is,  and  suggests  that  it  would  be  worth 
while  for  some  school — all  schools  for  that  matter — to  establish  a 
definite  time  schedule,  say  approximately  75  minutes  per  week,  with 
less  in  grades  2  and  3,  and  maintain  that  schedule  for  a  number 
of  years,  keeping  careful  record  by  standardized  tests  of  the  prog- 
ress made  from  grade  to  grade.  There  is  no  amount  of  theorizing, 
or  single  studies  such  as  the  above,  which  can  ever  take  the  place 
of  such  controlled  experiment  as  is  here  suggested.  Such  a  care- 
fully controlled  study  is  a  legitimate  experiment  to  make  in  a  school 
and  the  principal  is  the  one  with  the  best  opportunities  to  make  it 
and  report  the  results.  This  does  not  argue  that  every  school  could 
wisely  use  the  allotment  best  suited  to  one  given  school,  but  one 
such  time  schedule  interpreted  in  terms  of  the  results  produced 
through  a  series  of  years  would  be  a  definite  basis  from  which  other 
schools  and  other  cities  might  find  appropriate  standards.  It  is 
folly  to  use  200  minutes  if  60  or  75  minutes  will  give  the  same 
results. 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  AND  TEACHING  OF  SPELLING 


71 


With  the  development  of  scales  for  measuring-  spelling  efficiency 
we  need  to  proceed  to  the  task  of  standardizing  the  time  allotment, 
the  content,  both  as  a  whole  and  by  grades,  and  the  teaching  of  the 
subject. 

CONTENT  OF  THE  COURSE  IN  SPELLING. 

In  the  information  blank  filled  out  by  teachers,  inquiry  was  made 
as  to  the  sources  from  which  spelling  content  is  secured.  From  the 
replies  to  these  questions  it  is  clear  that  practically  no  teacher  de- 
pends solely  upon  a  spelling  text.  Perhaps  in  all  a  half  dozen 
teachers  do  not  go  outside  of  a  speller  for  word  lists.  In  almost 
every  case  teachers  are  correlating  the  spelling  with  other  subjects. 
The  nature  of  this  correlation  is  indicated  by  table  22,  which  shows 
the  chief  sources  from  which  spelling  lists  are  made  up,  and  the 
number  of  teachers  in  each  grade  who  draw  upon  these  sources. 


TABLE  22. 

Showing  the  Chief  Sources,  Other  Than  Text,  From  Which  Spelling  Lists  Are 

Selected,  and  the  Number  of  Teachers  by  Grades  Who 

Make  Use  of  Each  of  These  Sources. 


GRADE 


OUUKCt 

8 

7 

6 

5 

4 

3 

2 

History 

23 

26 

23 

46 

31 

9 

Geography   

20 

32 

43 

59 

44 

8 

1 

Reading  and 
Language 

26 

30 

38 

55 

43 

47 

37 

Grammar 

9 

12 

15 

13 

5 

4 

Nature   Study  

9 

8 

11 

21 

9 

16 

Arithmetic   

9 

8 

12 

23 

8 

8 

2 

All  written  work.... 

15 

8 

19 

25 

5 

6 

1 

Other  sources  such  as  words  used  in  conversations,  words  from 
street  signs,  names  of  things  in  common  use  in  the  kitchen,  school- 
room, etc.,  were  mentioned,  which  means  that  various  types  of  in- 
dividual and  class  lists  are  collected  and  made  use  of.  This  is  an 
excellent  practice,  and  could  well  be  extended  to  the  point  of  try- 
ing to  work  out  standard  grade  lists  of  words  which  are  regularly 
found  to  be  troublesome  words.  Judging  from  lists  of  words  which 
teachers  prepared  for  examination  purposes  in  spelling,  these  sources 
were  drawn  upon  rather  liberally.  There  is  danger  in  laying"  too 
much  emphasis  upon  technical  terms  from  other  subjects.  There 
were  in  the  lists  referred  to  here  a  number  of  geographical  and 
physiological  terms  which  children,  or  adults  either,  will  rarely  use. 


72 


OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 
LENGTH    OF   LESSON    ASSIGNMENT. 


In  late  years  the  tendency  to  devote  less  and  less  time  to  the 
formal  study  of  spelling-  has  been  accompanied  by  a  similar  ten- 
dency in  regard  to  the  number  of  words  assigned  per  lesson. 

A  record  of  the  number  of  words  customarily  assigned  by  330 
teachers  of  spelling  in  Oakland  is  presented  by  grades  in  table  23. 

TABLE  23. 

Showing  by  Grades  the  Variability  in  Length  of  Daily  Lesson 

Assignment. 


No.  of  Words 
Assigned 

GRADE 

8 

rf 

6 

5  |  4 

3 

2 

Total 

40  to  50  . 

3 

1 
3 

1 

8 

1 

4 
1 

1 

1 
2 

2 
15.6 

2 
9 
2 

2 
2 

3 
6 
3 

1 
1 
1 

14.7 

3 
2 
4 
1 
1 
21 
6 
1 
2 
7 

1 
2 
1 
2 

1 
19.5 

1 
3 

4 
12 
3 
1 
1 
13 

1 
3 
2 

7 

2 
16.5 

5 

1 
2 
3 
9 
2 
2 
3 
3 
18 
1 
2 
1 

5 
12.2 

1 

1 
4 

1 
5 
2 
26 
3 
2 
1 
3 
10 
1 
9.5 

1 
1 

1 

3 

8 
1 
5 
6 
3 
11 
5 
5.5 

3 
3 
4 
10 
1 
8 
57 
12 
7 
8 
40 
3 
6 
19 
14 
65 
5 
14 
9 
7 
29 
6 
13.3 

35  to  39 

30  to  34 

25  to  29        

24  

22 

20 

18  

17 

16          

15 

14 

13        

12 

11             

10     

9 

8          

7 

6 

5        

3  to  4 

Average  

The  range  in  number  is  extremely  wide,  varying  from  3  to  50. 
and  running  as  high  as  20  in  grade  2.  The  average  for  the  differ- 
ent grades,  as  shown  at  the  bottom  of  this  table,  varies,  but  it  is 
safe  to  say  that  in  the  light  of  the  best  practice,  all  the  averages  are 
too  high.  There  are  two  separate  tasks  for  the  teacher,  one  is 
teaching  and  the  other  is  testing.  These  processes  should  not  be 
confused  for  neither  will  do  the  work  of  the  other.  An  occasional 
test,  covering  a  list  of  20  or,  rarely,  50  words  may  be  desirable,  but 
should  be  regarded  only  as  a  means  of  discovering  whether  or  not 
the  previous  teaching  of  those  words  has  been  effective.  From  the 
length  of  lists  indicated  here  but  two  possible  conclusions  can  be 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  AND  TEACHING  OF  SPELLING          73 

drawn,  either  there  is  little  teaching-  and  much  testing  of  spelling, 
or  else  the  assignments  include  many  words  already  familiar  to  the 
class.  The  latter  is  useless  and  time  consuming,  and  the  former 
is  extremely  bad  pedagogically.  This  table  does  not  include  the 
number  presented  as  review  words. 

METHODS  AND  DEVICES  IN  USE  IN  THE  TEACHING  OF  SPELLING. 

A  part  of  the  information  which  teachers  were  asked  to  give 
was  a  brief  description  of  the  methods  and  devices  they  are  now 
using  in  the  teaching"  of  spelling.  Many  of  the  answers  were  very 
full  and  clear  statements  of  procedure  which  is  based  on  the  best 
pedagogical  theory.  A  few,  however,  were  brief  statements  of  the 
traditional  ideas  of  bare  assignment,  followed  by  an  oral  or  written 
test. 

To  summarize  these  replies  will  of  course  necessitate  much 
abbreviation,  but  ii  is  thought  that  such  a  condensed  statement  of 
how  a  city  teaches  its  children  to  spell  may  have  some  value.  It 
would  seem  from  a  review  of  these  replies,  that  every  conceivable 
device  is  in  use  in  some  school. 

A  few  quotations  from  the  replies  of  2nd  grade  teachers  will 
show  effectively  how  spelling  is  being  taught  in  that  grade.  From 
these  we  have  the  following,  which  are  fully  typical  of  the  37  replies 
from  grade  2 : 

1.  "Spell  word  orally,  trace  it  in  the  air,  shut  your  eyes  and  see 
mental  picture,  then  write  it  on  the  board."     Pick  out  phonetic  parts 
and  silent  letters,  and  spell  words  in  parts,  not  separate  letters." 

2.  "Must  know  how  to  pronounce  words,  I  teach  spelling  of 
familiar  phonograms — then  words  containing  these  phonograms." 

3.  "All   study  and   recitation   is  done  with  the  words  on  the 
blackboard.      After    studying   the    words,    pointing   out    the    parts 
known   (phonetic  groups,  consonants,  etc.)  and  how  they  resemble 
or  differ  from  words  known,  the  children  spell  orally,  or  write  indi- 
vidually the  word.     They  are  never  allowed  to  guess,  if  not  sure, 
look  at  the  model,  but  all  try  to  see  who  can  be  the  first  to  spell 
correctly   without   referring   to   board.     As   these   words   occur   in 
reading,  writing  or  language  they  are  also  spelled." 

4.  "New  words  examined  for  parts  known.     Especial  study  of 
parts   unknown.     Writing    words    in    air.     On    desk.     On    board. 
Finding  words  with  known  parts  in  reader." 

5.  "The  words  are  presented,  traced,  then  spelled.     No  hesita- 
tion allowed,  to  avoid  guessing." 

6.  "Grouping  the   words    containing    similar    elements.  -  Oral 
spelling  by  one  pupil  while  class  watches  the  list." 

One  teacher  of  foreign  children  emphasizes  "the  use  of  words  in 


74  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

sentences."  Others  try  to  get  incorrectly  spelled  words  out  of  sight 
as  quickly  as  possible ;  have  but  one  word  on  the  board  at  a  time ; 
have  all  pronounce  correctly  as  they  look  at  the  word ;  in  testing, 
have  all  who  can  spell  the  words  raise  hands — others  not  permitted 
to  write  till  more  teaching  is  done  on  that  word;  mark  phonetic 
parts  or  silent  letters  with  colored  chalk ;  refer  to  the  "u"  in  four, 
the  "igh"  in  high,  etc.  as  the  keys  which  unlock  these  words;  and 
systematic  review  of  every  word  daily,  weekly,  and  monthly,  are 
other  ideas  brought  out  in  the  second  grade  replies. 

It  is  clearly  evident  that  there  is  much  real  teaching  of  spelling 
in  this  grade,  and  that  the  traditional  method  of  merely  testing  is 
the  exception. 

In  grade  3  practically  all  these  ideas  are  expressed,  and  in  addi- 
tion the  following  are  typical: 

1.  "The  words  each  child  has  missed  the  day  before  are  given 
to  him.     He  writes  them  on  the  board  or  on  paper,  or  studies  them 
silently.     Each  day  I  review  the  words  most  often  misspelled." 

2.  "Read  words  in  sentences — discuss  meaning — written  review 
every  third  day." 

3.  "I  have  had  printed  a  list  of  somewhat  more  than  200  words 
and  phrases  in  which  they  are  required  to  be  absolutely  correct  if 
these  words  are  used  in  composition.     List  on  good  board  in  their 
seats."     (Does  not  tell  how  these  words  are  taught.) 

Other  ideas,  such  as  having  the  list  of  words  for  the  lesson  mem- 
orized, keeping  a  spelling  record,  contests,  collecting  individual  and 
class  lists,  and  copying  misspelled  words  into  individual  note  books 
are  frequently  mentioned. 

Again  in  the  4th  grade  practically  all  the  above  ideas  enter  with 
some  reference  to  drill,  and  to  the  developments  of  rules  for  spelling 
some  words.  In  grade  5  some  are  making  use  of  the  dictionary, 
one  says  "cultivating  the  habit  of  noticing  the  spelling  of  new  words 
encountered  in  reading,"  another:  "I  make  sentences  to  emphasize 
difficulties  as,  he  ate  a  piece  of  pie  on  the  pier."  Many  have  the 
children  use  the  spelling  words  in  sentences. 

In  grades  6  to  8  more  emphasis  is  placed  upon  definitions,  analy- 
sis, drill,  and  some  on  diacritical  marks. 

To  show  how  generally  these  methods  and  devices  are  used  the 
following  rough  tabulation  is  presented  for  grades  3  to  8  from 
which  it  is  clear  that  nearly  every  teacher,  of  the  286  reporting,  had 
ideas  that  were  possible  to  classify  under  one  or  more  of  the  head- 
ings used.  Naturally  in  the  brief  space,  many  did  not  mention  every 
feature  of  their  work.  Certainly  written  spelling  is  more  common 
in  the  upper  than  in  the  lower  grades,  but  from  this  table  it  does 
not  appear  so.  Such  a  common  practice  would  likely  be  taken  for 
granted.  Aside  from  this  the  table  is  suggestive.  Oral  spelling 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  AND  TEACHING  OF  SPELLING 


TABLE   24. 


75 


Distribution  of  Teachers  With  Respect  to  Methods  and  Devices 
Used  in  Teaching  Spelling. 


3 

4 

5 

6 

7 

8 

Total 

Oral    spelling"          

35 

16 

8 

10 

7 

5 

81 

WYitten   spelling  

32 

37 

42 

37 

20 

11 

179 

Develop  the  meaning  of  word 
Trace  the  word  in  air  or 
on  desk  .         

15 
18 

5 

7 

20 
2 

20 
1 

17 

17 

94 
28 

Copy  the  list  of  words  

14 

9 

2 

2 

2 

29 

Study  words  by  syllables 
and  parts                 

13 

16 

21 

16 

12 

7 

85 

Have  child  use  word  in 
sentence 

17 

17 

23 

13 

14 

20 

104 

Note  unfamiliar  and  diffi- 
cult parts  of  word 

26 

18 

27 

17 

12 

8 

108 

Emphasis  on  correct  pro- 
nunciation 

35 

25 

38 

19 

28 

18 

163 

Development   and   applica- 
tion of  rules 

1 

4 

5 

10 

Total  No.  of  replies.... 

49 

51 

63 

54 

37 

32 

286 

gradually  decreases  in  amount  from  the  lower  to  the  upper  grades, 
tracing  the  word  in  air  or  on  desk  disappears  by  grade  6,  detailed 
study  of  word  by  syllables  decreases  similarly,  and  use  of  rules  re- 
ceives little  attention  even  in  upper  grades. 

From  these  replies,  really  wooden  teaching  is  conspicuously 
wanting  though  in  cases  bare  study  and  drill  are  still  believed  in. 
These  few,  it  must  be  said,  are  greatly  in  the  minority,  and  they 
should  realize  that  while  the  old  idea  of  bare  drill  under  pressure  of 
"get  these  words  or  remain  after  school  and  write  them  a  hundred 
times"  will  get  results  it  will  rarely  get  permanent  results,  and  that 
such  teaching  is  a  lazy  way  of  dodging  responsibility  which  too 
often  leads  the  child  to  dislike  spelling,  and  school  in  general,  in- 
stead of  disliking  his  teacher  with  her  mediaeval  equipment,  as  he 
really  should  do. 

In  the  replies  there  is  little  effort  to  distinguish  methods  from 
devices.  It  is  true  that  the  line  between  the  two  is  hard  to  draw, 
for  some  devices  may  be  applied  in  a  variety  of  cases.  The  princi- 
ple underlying  the  nature  and  use  of  each  device  is  clearly  a  detail 
in  the  statement  of  the  relation  of  the  child's  mind  to  the  subject 
matter  in  question,  which  is  a  statement  of  detail  in  what  has  come 
to  be  termed  special  method.  Device  is  a  term  used  to  indicate  the 
special  plan  or  set  of  conditions  under  which,  or  objects  by  which, 


76  OAKLAND  SPELLING  INVESTIGATION 

that  principle  is  permitted  to  work.  "Colored  chalk"  is  a  device 
when  used  in  directing  attention  to  a  certain  difficult  part  of  a  word, 
so  also  is  the  underlining  of  "ie,"  in  chief,  in  order  to  focus  the 
attention  of  the  child  upon  the  probable  difficulty  he  will  meet  in 
trying  to  spell  that  word.  Method  is  the  process  by  which  experi- 
ence (it  maybe  spelling  a  given  word)  is  accumulated.  It  is  the 
way  the  mind  or  body  acts  in  achieving  an  end,  while  devices  are 
means  or  instruments  whereby  that  process  is  facilitated. 

It  may  be  that  for  the  classroom  teacher  a  technical  use  of 
these  terms  is  unimportant,  but  if  a  knowledge  of  their  meaning 
would  obviate  the  too  frequent  assumption  that  a  given  device,  a 
mere  incident  in  instruction,  is  of  fundamental  importance  in  all 
classes  and  subjects,  it  would  be  worth  while  to  understand  them. 

There  is  of  course  much  in  these  replies  that  does  not  come  out 
in  this  brief  space,  most  of  which  goes  further  to  show  that  indi- 
viduality plays  a  large  part  in  matters  of  detail,  but  that  spelling 
is  really  taught  and  really  studied  intelligently.  Most  of  the  teach- 
ers who  use  the  word  "concentration"  and  "drill"  make  it  clear  that 
these  are  made  effective  by  proper  direction. 

CONCLUSIONS. 

In  conclusion  it  must  be  said  that  the  general  policy  for  adminis- 
tering the  subject  of  spelling  is  sound  in  its  plan  of  relating  spelling 
to  other  subjects. 

Similarly  there  can  be  no  theoretical  exception  taken  to  the  time 
for  beginning  this  subject,  which  the  schools  are  following,  though 
the  practical  arguments  that  it  should  begin  earlier  are  found  in 
the  poor  results  of  the  test  in  grades  2  and  3.  To  this  objection 
it  must  first  be  said ;  that  it  applies  to  the  lower  divisions  of 
these  grades  only,  and  that  from  grade  3B  on  there  are  no  evidences 
of  either  poor  foundation  work  or  low  spelling  efficiency.  It  is  of 
course  not  evident  whether  these  later  achievements  are  or  are  not 
at  the  expense  of  other  subjects.  Opinion  that  they  are  would  be 
offset  by  opinion  that  equal  or  greater  gain  is  obtained  in  the  earlier 
years  when  formal  training  is  more  difficult  and  trying  for  the  child. 

The  point  is,  there  is  little  but  opinion  as  yet  upon  which  to  base 
a  decision  as  to  the  best  time  for  beginning  spelling,  or  any  other 
subject.  The  tendency  today  is  distinctly  in  the  direction  of  defer- 
ring the  formal  work  in  number,  writing  and  spelling,  giving  the 
first  and  in  many  of  the  better  schools,  a  large  share  of  the  second 
year  to  reading,  oral  expression  and  dramatization.  Psychology 
and  physiology  sanction,  and  tradition  opposes  this  tendency.  There 
is  doubtless  a  best  time  to  begin  spelling,  and  our  hope  of  finding 
that  time  lies  in  the  growing  tendency  to  give  quantitative  statement 
to  the  results  of  all  teaching.  Oakland's  best  proof  that  more  good 
than  harm  comes  from  their  present  plan  lies  in  showing  superior 


THE  ADMINISTRATION  AND  TEACHING  OF  SPELLING          77 

achievements  in  other  subjects  which  may  offset  the  low  grade  of 
spelling"  work  in  the  first  three  years. 

As  to  the  amount  of  time  given  to  spelling,  the  present  practice 
needs  revision  in  the  direction  of  less  rather  than  more.  Spelling 
in  the  7th  and  8th  grades  should  be  carefully  watched  by  teachers 
and  much  incidental  work  on  the  subject  should  be  done,  such  as 
having  children  make  lists  of  their  own  misspelled  words  wherever 
they  are  found  in  written  work.  But  the  amount  of  formal  class 
attention  to  the  subject  should  be  small.  Any  evidence  we  have 
here,  and  that  from  other  investigations,  tends  to  show  that  much 
time  is  wasted  on  spelling.  Fifteen  minutes  a  day  has  come  to  be 
regarded  as  the  maximum  amount. 

Lesson  assignments  need  to  be  materially  shortened  in  all  grades. 
At  the  rate  of  2  new  .words  a  day  from  the  2nd  grade  through  the 
8th,  the  school  would  provide  a  child  with  something  like  2800 
words.  If  this  number  were  gradually  increased  through  the 
grades  from  2  to  8  or  10  for  the  8th  grade,  the  child  would  leave 
school  equipped  with  more  words  by  far  than  a  large  percentage  of 
children  would  ever  have  use  for. 

In  method  there  is  much  to  commend,  and  the  only  suggestion 
is  that  present  practice  should  be  backed  up  by  a  wider  reading 
knowledge  than  is  evident  in  the  replies  to  the  question  bearing  upon 
the  literature  on  the  subject. 


APPENDIX  A. 

A  SUGGESTED  READING  LIST  FOR  TEACHERS  AND 
PRINCIPALS. 

The  following  list  of  books  and  articles,  including  the  best  litera- 
ture on  the  subject  of  teaching  spelling,  should  be  familiar  to  every 
teacher  of  the  subject: 

1.  Suzzallo,  Dr.  Henry — The  Teaching  of  Spelling,  Houghton, 

Mifflin  Co.,  1913. 

2.  Cook  &  O'Shea— The  Child  &  His  Spelling,  Bobbs-Merril 

Co.,  1914. 

3.  Charters  W.  W. — Teaching  the  Common  Branches,  Chap. 

I,  Houghton  Mifflin  Co.,  1913. 

4.  Jones,  W.   F. — Concrete   Investigation  of  the  Material  of 

English  Spelling.     Univ.  of  South  Dakota,  1913. 

5.  Boston,  Dept.  of  Educ.     Investigation,  Bui.  1,  Provisional 

Minimum  &  Supplementary  Lists  for  Grades  1  to  8.     Dept. 
of  Educ. 

6.  Cook,  N.  A.— Shall  We  Teach  Spelling  by  Rule?-    Jr.  of 

Educ.  Psych.  3 :  316-25. 

7.  Rice,  J.  M.— The  Futility  of  the  Spelling  Grind,  Forum, 

1897.     PP.  193-409. 

8.  Suzzallo  &  Pearson — Comparative  Experimental  Teaching 
of  Spelling.     Teachers'  College  Record,  Jan.,  1912. 

9.  Ayres,  Leonard  P. — The  Spelling  Vocabularies  of  Personal 

and  Business  Letters.     Russel  Sage  Foundation,  Pub.  E. 
126. 

10.  Bailey-Manly  Spelling  Books  (2  vols.)  with  Teachers  Man- 
ual, Boston,  1908. 

11.  Nicholson,  Dr.  Anne— "Speller  for  the  Use  of  Teachers  of 

Cal."     State  Printer,  Sacramento,  Cal. 

12.  Hicks-Champion  Spelling  Book,  Am.  Bk.  Co.,  New  York, 

1909. 

In  addition  to  this  list,  principals  will  find  the  following  list  in- 
valuable : 

1.  Pearson — Scientific  Study  of  the  Teaching  of  Spelling,  Jr. 
of  Ed.  Psych.  2 :  241. 

2.  Rusk — Analysis  of  Spelling  Errors  of  Adults.     Jr.  of  Exp. 

Pedagogy,  June,  1913. 

3.  Wallin,  J.  E.  W.— Spelling  Efficiency,  Baltimore,  1911. 


SUGGESTED    READING  XIST.,  :/'.  X!,*  *    [     .;    79 

4.  "Has  the  Drill  Become  Obsolete  ?     Jr.  of  Ed.,  Psych.  1910 : 

200. 

5.  Abbott — Analysis    of    Memory    Consciousness    in    Ortho- 

graphy.    Psych.  Rev.  Monograph,  1909. 

6.  Burnham — Hygiene    and    Psychology    of    Spelling.     Ped. 

Sem.  13 :  471-503. 

7.  Buckingham — Spelling  Ability,  its  Measurement  &  Distri- 
bution, Teachers  College,  Col.  Univ.,  1913. 

8.  Cornman — Spelling    in    the    Elementary    School,    Boston, 

1902. 

9.  Gregory,  B.  C.— The  Rationale  of  Spelling.     El.  Sch.  Tr. 

8:  40. 

10.  Kline — A  Study  in  the  Psychology    of    Spelling.     Jr.    of 

Educ.  Psych.  3:  380. 

11.  Ayres,  Dr.  Leonard  P. — A  Scale  for  Measuring  Efficiency 

in  Spelling.     Russel  Sage  Foundation,  New  York,  1915. 

12.  Lbngnecker,  Gertrude — The  Teaching  of  Spelling,  Bui.  No. 

3.  Vol.  II,  San  Diego  State  Normal,  Cal.  State  Printer, 
1914. 


